


Fix You

by JillHayes



Category: Graceland (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-02
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2018-09-21 11:18:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 16
Words: 34,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9546617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JillHayes/pseuds/JillHayes
Summary: Set a year after the Graceland finale.  Mike is back to work in D.C., living with his girlfriend of 6 months.





	1. Chapter 1

“Jill, have you seen my blue tie?  I have a meeting with the director today!”  She pops her head into the bedroom from the adjoined bathroom, “The director of the FBI?  Really?”  He rummages through the closet, cursing at something falling over, “Yes, really, now help me find my tie!”  

“Alright, calm down, babe.”  She walks up behind him, running her hand down his back in a calming way.  “I just, I can’t fuck this up again.  I’m finally clean and back here in D.C. and I don’t want to do anything to jeopardize this again.”  She kisses his shoulder softly.

“Mike, you’re not going to fuck it up, okay?  Just be your usual charming, smart and sexy self.”  He chuckles, turning to face her, “I don’t know if Director Corney would appreciate my ‘sexy self’.”  Jill reaches up behind him, grabbing a light blue tie off the rack in the closet.  “Here, this one brings out your eyes.”  

“And that is why I love you.”  He bends down, placing a quick kiss on her lips, before rushing out to the mirror to put on his tie.  “I love you too, now, I gotta go or I’m going to be late for my meeting with a possible tech donor.”  She walks over, kissing his on the cheek before rushing out.  

 

“I don’t understand what you’re asking of me, sir.”  Mike says, confused.  “I’m asking you to go back under, there’s a narco case that I want you on.”  Mike pinches the bridge of his nose, getting stressed.  

“Sir, with all due respect, I can’t go under for narco.”  Corney goes to sit at his desk chair, “Agent Warren, are you denying my request? Because, if so, I can find someone better fit for your job.”  Mike puffs his chest out, “No sir, I can do the job.”  

“Good, I’ll have my assistant bring you the case file, and you can study up on it.  You will report in three days.  Until then, take the time to study the case, and relax, away from the offices.”  He says the last bit, very pointedly, which makes Mike uneasy.  “Thank you, sir.  I will do that.” 

Mike walks out of Corney’s office, taking the case file from the assistant.  He walks out of the offices and heads back to his apartment.  

 

“Hey baby, what are you doing home so early?  I thought you were meeting with the director.”  Jill asks, as Mike plops down on the couch next to her.  

“He told me to study this case file away from the office for the next few days.”  She looks up at him, confused, “Why away from the office?”  He shrugs, wrapping an arm around her waist, burying his head into her shoulder.  

“I don’t know, your guess is as good as mine.”  She rubs his back, in an awkward position, but where it was comfortable for him.  “Something else is bothering you, what’s up?”  He sits up, looking her in the eyes.  He cups her face in one of his hands, leaning in to kiss her.  It wasn’t a normal kiss, it was a desperate, needy kiss.  

“He wants me to go under for a narco case.”  Jill had been doing non profit stuff with the FBI the past couple of years, so Mike was allowed to talk to her about this.  He had told her about his substance abuse problem after a few weeks of dating.  

“But, you aren’t supposed to work in narco for another six months.  They said they wouldn’t do that.”  She realizes after saying that, that she should be there to comfort him, instead of getting panicked.  “Let’s go sit in a warm bath, that’ll help you feel better.”  

She takes his hand, helping him up to go to their bedroom.  “Jill, I just want to lie down and sleep, please.”  She stops, right before getting to the bathroom door.  She lets go of Mike’s hand and in an instant, pulls her shirt over her head, throwing it to the floor.  

“Come on, that’s not fair.”  Mike says, walking closer to Jill.  She backs up into the bathroom after peeling off the shorts she had on.  “Your turn.”  She says, slowly pulling Mike’s suit jacket off of his back.  He loosens his tie, pulling it off over his head.  

Jill unbuttons his dress shirt still slow, peeling it from his shoulders, as he unbuckles his belt.  “Have I told you how much I love your hair longer like this?”  She ruffles his hair, as he leans in to kiss her, “Have I told you how much I love everything about you?”  His fingertips hover over her face, not knowing where he wants to touch her first.  

Jill unbuttons Mike’s slacks, and he steps out of them before pulling his white t-shirt off.  Jill’s fingers trace down his abs, taking in the tortured body of the tortured soul that she loves so much.  “What’s this one from?”  She points to the scar above his right hip.  

“Stabbed, I was under with a heroin dealer.”  His face goes emotionless as he walks over to start the tub.  “Hey, I’m sorry, you didn’t have to tell me.  I just don’t know how you got any of the scars and stuff.”  He lets the tub fill up, putting some bubble bath in it, before standing back up to face Jill.

“I know, how about I tell you anything you want to know for the next hour?  And then after that, you tell me anything I want to know.”  Jill reaches up, caressing his cheek, “Deal.”  She shimmies out of her underwear and pulls off her bra.  She sits in the tub, turning off the water.  “Come join me, let’s talk.”  Mike climbs into the bathtub, leaning back against Jill’s chest.  

 

“That spot above your right rib cage, you got shot, didn’t you?”  Mike can feel her tense so he rubs her outer thigh, calming her, “Yeah, I did.  I, umm, my lung collapsed in surgery for that one.  Someone, who was after me, came into the hospital and cut off my oxygen.  I was drowning on dry land.”  He says, remembering Sid’s words, like it was yesterday.  

“Jesus,” she presses her lips to his temple, “What about this spot?”  She runs her finger along a line under his jaw.  “I, uh, I was tortured, sorta.”  

“By who?”  She asks, resting her cheek on the top of his head, “Some wannabe Caza Cartel followers.”  Jill shifts uncomfortably, “How did they torture you?”  Her voice cracks, he turns his head, looking up at her, “Hey, I’m okay, sweetheart.  And, they sort of waterboarded me, I guess some would say.”  

All of a sudden, a timer goes off on Mike’s phone.  “Alright,” he says, turning the alarm off, “your turn.”  

 

“So, you were engaged?”  Jill nods, reluctantly, “He wasn’t nice to me, a friend I met during analyst training at Quantico helped me get out of it.”  Mike leans into her more, trying to get her to relax.  

“What did he to you?”  Mike asks, his voice barely above a whisper.  “Emotionally; he would treat me like I was nothing, unless we were in public.  He’d treat me like an absolute queen when we were around people.  Physically; he…”  Her voice catches, and Mike notices.  He sits up, turning to face Jill, “Hey, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”  She leans up, kissing him softly.  

“He hit me, it didn’t go much further than that until I tried breaking up with him.”  Mike gets out, grabbing a towel off the rack, wrapping it around his waist.  He extends his hand to Jill, helping her out and wrapping a towel around her shoulders.  He stands there with her, holding her from behind.  

“He raped me, Mike.  I’m sorry, I should’ve told you.”  His arms drop, he walks around her, leaning down so that he can look her in the eyes, “Hey, hey, hey, why are you apologizing?  I’m not gonna think any less of you for that, you are so much stronger because of it.”  

“I just, you don’t understand.”  He looks at her confused as she tries looking away from him.  “Jill, please talk to me, make me understand.  You’re scaring me.”  He situates the towel on Jill, covering her more.  “I got pregnant when he raped me.  When I told him, he-” She stops, covering her mouth to muffle her crying.  

“Okay, okay,” Mike pulls her into his chest, “I’m sorry, you don’t have to talk about it.”  He whispers into her hair.  “Mike, he killed the baby.”  Mike pulls away, walking her into the bedroom.  They take a seat on the bed, with Jill in Mike’s lap.  “What do you mean, he killed the baby? How did he do it?”

“He locked me in our bedroom closet, and he-”, her voice cracks, and Mike rubs circles on her lower back, “he beat me, within an inch of my life.  And some time in the middle of the night, I woke up and there was just a pool of blood.”  At this point, Jill couldn’t stop crying.  Mike pulls her head down to his shoulder, kissing her on the forehead.  

“Let me get you some clothes, you’re shivering.”  Mike says, Jill climbs off of his lap, sitting on the edge of the bed.  “Do you want my sweats?”  He asks, looking over to her, “Yes please.”  He takes his clothes over to her, kneeling in front of her, “Here,” he pulls her towel from her upper body, replacing it with a hoodie. “Mike, can you get me some water? I’ll finish getting myself dressed.”  He nods, standing up and kissing her on the nose.  

 

“Is that the case file Director Corney assigned you?”  Jill picks up one of the folders, “Yeah, I have no idea how I’m gonna go under with this guy, I need a solid cover.”  She sits up on her knees, crawling behind him, to massage his shoulders, “What about your old cover? What’s wrong with that one?”  He leans back into her, “That cover is a junkie, I have to be able to sell his drugs, without being a user.”  

“How the hell are you supposed to do that?”  Mike rests his head on Jill’s shoulder, “That’s what I need to figure out.  This guy is insanely good.  He is supplying three major cartels with heroin, oxy, morphine, any major addictive drug you can think of.”  Jill runs her hands down his chest, in hopes of relaxing him.  

“Do you want my help?”  She asks, as he picks up one of her hands, kissing her knuckles.  “No, I don’t want you stressing over my stuff.  I want you to relax.”  

“Mike, you don’t have to protect me, I’m okay, really.  I just hadn’t talked about that stuff in a long time, and it was weird telling you.”  He sits up, turning to face her, “I know, I just, I hate seeing you upset and I don’t want to be the reason you’re hurting.”  

“Mike, you’re not going to hurt me, I know you won’t.  At least not on purpose.”  He leans in kissing her, desperate for her happiness.  “I love you,” she says smiling up at him, he chuckles, trying to forget about what she told him earlier, “I love you too, angel.”  

 

Jill wakes up in the middle of the night to the sound of a laptop keyboard.  “Mike? Why are you up?”  He looks up from the other side of the room, he’s taken residence on the floor in the corner of the room, “I couldn’t sleep, I’ll be alright, go back to sleep.”  Jill pulls the blankets off of her and walks over to the corner he’s sitting in, sitting down across from him.  

“Please come back to bed.”  She closes his laptop and leans up, kissing him, “I have a lot of work to do, baby.”  

“And three days to do it, now please come to bed, I don’t like sleeping without you.”  He takes his laptop and sets it on the floor next to him.  “Fine, but only if you kiss me again.”  He closes his eyes and Jill leans in one more time, kissing him. 


	2. Chapter 2

“How about Mike Ross? You’re from New York, you grew up on the Upper East Side with a huge trust fund.”  Mike shakes his head, taking a sip of his beer, they’ve been thinking of covers for two and a half days, he starts tomorrow and he’s got nothing.  “No, they’d look into that.”  

“Alright, then the opposite.  You’re from Queens, didn’t grow up in a great neighborhood.  Turned to selling to make a living.”  Mike thinks about it for a minute, “That could work.  No family to look into, no ties to anything, really.  Wanna help me build a record, and ID?”  Jill gets up and walks over to Mike’s seat at the table, sitting in his lap.  Mike wraps an arm around her waist to steady her.  

“Yeah sure, but can we go in the living room to do it?”  She gets up off of his lap, he nods, getting out of the chair, leading her into the living room behind him.  

 

Later that night, Mike and Jill are laying in bed, Mike completely knocked out, leaving Jill alone with her thoughts.  As she drifts off to sleep, she dreams about what could happen to Mike in the coming weeks that he will be undercover.  She knows he’s good at his job, but what if he gets addicted again?  

She must’ve been tossing and turning in her sleep, because the next thing she knows, Mike is shaking her awake.  “Are you alright? You were freaking out.”  He says, holding her close to him.  “Yeah, I just had a bad dream, that’s all.”  He runs his hand down her side, relaxing her, as her breathing evens out.  “Want to talk about it?”

“I just am worried about you, Mike.  What if you get hooked again?”  He lays back down on his back, raking his hand over his face.  She knows she shouldn’t have voiced her concerns, but she can’t take it back now.  “Come here, baby.”  

She crawls over to him, resting her head on his chest.  “I’m gonna be fine, okay? I won’t get hooked again, it’s been 8 months.  I’m clean.”  She traces his abdomen with her pointer finger, “I know, and I trust you, but I don’t trust the guys you’re going under with.”  

“Jill, I’m gonna be okay, if I so much as think about taking a pill, you’ll know.  I will make sure that I stay clean, okay?”  He kneads her shoulder with his knuckles in a protective way.  “Okay, go back to sleep, you have a big day tomorrow.”  

 

Mike gets to the house he’s supposed to be at, and knocks on the door.  “Can I help you?”  Mike smirks, “Yeah, I’m Mike, you told a buddy of mine that you needed my help.”  

“You look like a lawyer, not someone who I need.”  He starts to close the door, but Mike puts his foot in the doorway, stopping it.  “They won’t see me coming, and that’s exactly why you need me.”  The guy rolls his eyes, giving into it, “I’m Vince, if you’re a user, you can back the hell on up right now, just know that.”  

“I don’t use, I just deliver and pick up.”  Vince nods, moving out of Mike’s way to enter the house.  “I take 30% of whatever it is you make, nothing less.”  Mike says, looking around the house.  It doesn’t look like the home of a major drug dealer.  

“Is there something you need done today?”  Vince closes the door behind him, “I need you to track down a guy that owes me.  He ended up with a kilo of my best, and I need you to get the money I’m owed.”  Mike nods, slipping his hands in his jean pockets.  He looks around some more, noticing something odd out of the corner of his eye.  

He sticks his neck out a bit, subtly looking into the hallway.  He notices a small stuffed elephant, before seeing a tiny body move out of the closed room to grab it and run back in.  He doesn’t want it to show that he sees it, so he heads to the front door.  “Here’s where he’ll be.” Vince hands him a piece of paper.  “I’ll be back in a couple hours.”  

“You have an hour, this is your test run.  If you can’t do it, don’t come back.”  Mike nods and walks out to his car.

“Don’t follow me, stay at his place, there’s a kid in there.”  He says into his watch, “Copy that.”  His partner answers.  Mike heads to the location of the man he’s supposed to find.  

 

“Hey, I’m friends with Vince, I heard you owe him some money.”  The guy looks up at him, and starts running away.  “Awesome.”  Mike follows after him, tripping him eventually.  Mike tackles him to the ground, pinning his arms down so that he can’t hit him.  

“Where’s the money you owe Vince?”  Mike yells, “I don’t have it!”  Mike rolls his eyes, repositioning himself so that his knee is on the guy’s ribs.  “Don’t lie to me, man.  I’ll make your life a living hell.”  

He pushes his knee further into the guy’s ribs, putting all of his weight to that side of his body.  Hearing the guy scream in pain, didn’t make Mike feel as bad as he used to.  He was numb to what he was doing to this man.  “Give me the fucking money, man!”       

“Alright, alright.  It’s in my backpack, now get the hell off of me!”  Mike gets up, still holding the guy’s shirt.  He unzips the backpack, grabbing the wad of cash out of the bag.  “Are we good now?”  Mike walks around to look at the guy.  “In a second.”  Mike punches him in the face, knocking him down.  “Now we’re good.”  He stuffs the money in his pocket, and heads back to his car.  

 

When Mike gets back outside of the house, he hears Vince yelling at someone, followed by a thud and a cry.  A child’s cry.  He reluctantly knocks on the door, and has to wait a minute before Vince opens it.  

“You got the money?”  Mike hands him the cash, “Alright, be back here in two days, I have a guy who wants to buy this heroin sitting in my garage.”  Mike agrees and walks back to his car.  

“There’s definitely a kid in that house.”  He says to his partner over the phone, as he pulls out of the driveway.  “I heard it, we gotta get her out of there.  Meet me at the coffee shop around the corner to debrief.”  He pulls into the parking lot, and gets out, heading over to a table outside.  

“I got him his money, he trusts me now, I will figure out what she’s doing in the house.”  His partner, John, takes a sip of his coffee.  “You better, because I want this case wrapped up as soon as possible.”  He gets up from the table and heads back to his car, leaving Mike.  

 

“Mikey, you home?”  He sits up on the bed, “Yeah, in here!”  Jill walks into the bedroom, “Hey, you tired?”  She walks over, sitting on the edge of the bed to take off her heels.  “Just thinkin’.”  She crawls over to Mike, straddling him.  

“About what? You seem off, did everything go alright today?”  He nods, resting his hands on her waist, “You know what I really need right now?”  He asks, “A back massage?”  Mike gives her a smirk, “You know me so well.”  

She gets up off of him so he can flip onto his stomach.  She sits straddling his lower back, she runs her hands up his bare back, trying to relax his muscles.  “What happened in there?”  He takes a deep breath, deciding if he should tell her, “There’s a kid in the house.  Surrounded by any drug you can think of.  She can’t be more than 5.”  

She puts more of her weight on his shoulders, “Jesus Christ baby, did you see her?”  He tucks his face into his pillow, “I saw some of her, not enough.  I’ve got some guys staking out the house, taking pictures if they can see her. But, umm.”  She pulls herself off of him, sitting down next to his head, “What happened?”  She runs her fingers through his hair, his eyes close as he lets out another breath, this time, waving a bit.  

“I heard him yelling at her, and then I heard a loud thud and a cry.  I don’t know what he did to her, but I couldn’t do anything about it.”  He gets choked up, Jill notices the tears in his eyes.  “Baby, come here.”  He pulls his head up, laying it on her lap, nuzzling his face into her abdomen.  “I just don’t know what to do, how do I even get a chance to make sure she’s okay?” 

“Distract him, tell him that you want to try some of his product.  When he goes to get it, go check on her.”  Mike pulls away from her, laying flat on her lap.  “Okay, I’ll try that.  I’ll go in tomorrow, see if he’ll do it.”  

 

“I thought you didn’t use.”  Vince says, getting a little uneasy.  “Does that mean I can’t have a taste?  Sometimes I like to have a little fun, that’s all.  I’m about to head out with my girl, and she likes doing freaky shit sometimes, you know?”  

He gives Mike a look, understanding what he’s talking about.  “Alright, give me five minutes, I’ll get you something good.”  Vince heads out to the garage, and Mike goes straight for the little girl’s room.  

“Hey, hey, hey, I’m a good guy, alright?”  He says, as she has a look of fear on her face.  “What’s your name?”  He extends a hand to her, seeing if she’ll take it.  “Sarah.”  She’s timid, but takes his hand, “Hi Sarah, I’m Mike, I’m kind of like a policeman, I’m gonna get you out of here.  Just give me a bit, okay?  How’d you get that bruise on your face?”  

“My daddy, he doesn’t like when I cry.”  That statement alone, breaks Mike’s heart.  “You’re gonna be okay, I’ll get you out of here, I promise.  I’ll be back soon, okay?”  She nods, leaping at him, wrapping her arms around his neck.  “Don’t go.”  He rubs her back, “I’ll be back, okay? I promise.  I’ll get you out of here.”  She pulls away from him when she hears the garage door open.  

Mike runs back into the living room, “Where were you?”  Vince asks, a little hostile.  “I was in the bathroom, sorry about that.”  Vince pulls a gun out of his jeans, “Where were you?”  

“I’m sorry man, I didn’t mean to offend you.”  As soon as he cocks his gun, Mike’s team storms in.  “What the hell is this, man?”  Mike yells, as he’s being cuffed against a wall.  

They take Vince out first, taking Mike out of his cuffs, he runs into the little girl’s room where he can hear her crying.  “Hey, hey, I’m back, you’re okay.  You’re alright.”  She runs to him, holding onto him tight.  He picks her up and carries her out to the surveillance van.  

“I need to get her checked out, she’s got bruises and burn marks all over.  Who the hell knows what he’s done to her.”  John nods at him, and Mike jumps out of the back of the van, following John.  “How old is she?”  She’s still clinging to Mike’s shirt, with her head buried in his shoulder.  

“Hey, Sarah, can you look up at me?”  He says, in a calming voice.  She slowly lifts her head up, making eye contact with him.  “Do you know how old you are?”  She unclenches his shirt with one hand, and holds up 5 fingers.  “You’re five?”  She nods, tears in her eyes, falling back onto his shoulder.  

He rubs her back, as she starts crying again.  “You’re okay, I’ve got you.”  They get in the car and drive out to a hospital.  

 

“Mike, I don’t know what we’re going to do about her.”  John says, Mike rakes a hand down his face in frustration.  “She can stay with me.  I’ll take care of her.”  John shakes his head, “I don’t like this, it’s sloppy.”  They hear a scream, followed by a cry coming from the room Sarah is in.  Mike bursts through the door, running over to the bed she’s laying on.  

“Hey, hey, hey, it’s Mike, I’m here.”  The doctor moves out of the way and Sarah latches onto him.  “What happened? Are you alright?”  

“She won’t let me touch her.  I tried removing her clothes to check her bruises and things, but she started freaking out.  I didn’t know.”  Mike relaxes her enough for her to lie back down.  “Hey, this man is very nice, okay? He’s not going to hurt you.  He just wants to check to make sure that you’re healthy, okay?”  She reaches up, and latches onto his shirt again.  “Do you want me to stay in here with you?”  

She nods her head, vigorously.  “Okay, it’s alright, I’m not going anywhere.”  He smooths her hair down, “Can you tell me what happened at your house?”  The doctor lifts up Sarah’s shirt, taking note of the bruises and burns.  “He hit me.”  She says, very timidly.  “Where did he hit you?”  She points down at her stomach, showing Mike the bruises on her ribs and abdomen.  “Did he do anything else to you?”  

“He smoked.”  Mike runs his finger over the burn marks on her stomach, “Is that when these would happen?”  She nods, getting uncomfortable.  “Okay, you don’t have to tell me anymore.”  He places a kiss on her forehead.  

“What’s your favorite color?”  She points to her shirt, “You like blue?”  She nods, cracking a small smile.  “That’s my favorite color too.”  He says, in an over excited tone.  

“Would you like to come stay with me for a while?  I have a really nice apartment that I live in with my friend, and she’d love to have you.”  She nods, cracking a smile at him.  The doctor rolls the band of her leggings down taking a look at her hips.  

“Hey, Sarah, what happened right here.”  Mike points to her hips, Sarah shrugs her shoulders.  “Did he hit you there?”  She shakes her head.  “Sweetheart, I need to know what he did, okay?”  She just shrugs her shoulders again.  

“Alright, that’s okay.”  The doctor takes some notes, before pulling Mike over to the side.  “I think she was molested.  The markings on her hips, seem to form a handprint.  Like someone grabbed her there.”  Mike lets out a breath.  “Alright, I will figure it out.  Can I take her home?”  The doctor nods at him, “Yeah, that’s fine.  Just, I wouldn’t pry information out of her that she’s uncomfortable sharing, she might not understand what happened to her.”  

“Alright, thank you.”  He shakes the doctor’s hand and goes back over to Sarah.  “Come on sweetheart.”  He picks her up off the bed and carries her into the hallway.  “Sarah, do you remember this man?”  He points at John, she nods her head.  “His name is John, and he’s my partner.  He’s a good guy too.”  John extends his hand and Sarah takes it.  “It’s nice to meet you, Sarah.”  

 

When they get to Mike’s apartment, Sarah is knocked out.  He opens the door, and finds Jill waiting for him.  “Hey, who’s this?”  She walks up to him, rubbing Sarah’s back.  “This is Sarah.  She’s five, and I told them she could stay here for a little bit.  Is that okay?”  Jill nods, “Yeah, that’s fine.”  

“Sarah, sweetheart, wake up.”  Mike kisses her temple, to wake her.  “Do you want to lie down and sleep?”  She shakes her head, “I want to stay with you.”  He holds her close to him.  “Okay, are you hungry?”  She nods, resting her head on his shoulder again.  

“Okay, let’s get you some food.  Do you like mac and cheese?”  She shrugs her shoulders, “Do you know what you like to eat?”  Jill speaks up, when Sarah hears her, she clings to Mike even harder.  “Hey, it’s okay, I’m Mike’s friend.  I live here with him.”  Sarah looks over at her.  “Would you like me to make you something to eat?”  Sarah nods, timidly.  “Sarah, it’s okay, she’s a good guy too.  You don’t have to be afraid here.  It’s a good place.”  Jill makes her some food and Mike sits down at the table with her. 

 

“Sarah, do you want to go lay down and rest?”  She nods, yawning and laying her head against his chest.  He carries her to his bedroom and lays her down in the bed.  “Just rest here, we will get you cleaned up in a little bit, okay?”  He goes over to his dresser, grabbing a t-shirt out and taking it over to her.  

“Sit up for me.”  She sits up against the headboard and lifts her arms up for him to take her shirt off.  “Do you need to go to the bathroom before you lay down?”  She nods, and he walks her to the attached bathroom.  

 

Mike and Jill were in the kitchen, discussing the arrangements for Sarah, when they heard a scream and a loud thud.  “Shit.”  Mike mutters under his breath as he jumps up and runs to the bedroom.  “Sarah, baby, where are you?  It’s Mike.”  He hears heavy breathing coming from the closet, so he opens the door, seeing her curled up in the back of it.  “Hey, come here.  What is it?”  She hides from him even further and Jill walks up behind him.  “Mike, your gun is out on the nightstand.”  

“Sarah, I’m sorry, please come out.  I promise, I’m a good guy.  Remember how I told you I was like a policeman?”  She nods, still afraid.  “I only have that for protection.  I don’t use it to hurt people, I promise.”  She crawls out from the back of the closet and wraps her arms around his neck, tight.  “Jill, can you put that in the safe, please?”  She walks over and removes the gun from the room.  

Mike carries Sarah out to the living room.  “Do you want to take a bath and get cleaned up?”  She nods against his chest.  “Okay, I’m sorry about my gun, I shouldn’t have had it out.  Did your daddy have a gun like that?”  He sets her down on the edge of the tub, “Yeah.”  

“Yeah? Did he ever hurt anyone with it?”  She nods her head, slowly.  “Mommy.”  He pulls his t-shirt off of her, “What happened to your mommy?”  

“He shot a gun at her.”  Mike starts the bath water, and gets a towel off of the rack.  “Okay, when was that?”  She rubs her eyes, probably still exhausted.  “Yesterday.”  He picks her up and puts her in the tub.  “I’m sorry I couldn’t save her, sweetheart.  I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”  Sarah puts her hand on Mike’s cheek, it’s a small sentiment, but it melts Mike’s heart.  

 

“Do you want to go to the store to get some clothes for you to wear?”  Mike asks Sarah as he gets her out of the bath.  She nods as he wraps a towel around her and picks her up.  “Alright, the three of us will go in just a minute.”  

“Mike, I’ve gotta go to the offices, they said they have need me for something.  I’ll be back tonight.”  Jill says through the door, “Alright, we are gonna do some shopping then come back here and chill out.”  

“Okay, be careful.  Love you.”  Mike repeats Jill and he and Sarah head to the bedroom to get her dressed.  

“You can pick out any clothes you want, and we can get some books and movies.  And some toys if you want.  And then, we can come back here and eat dinner, and relax.  Does that sound good?”  Mike asks her, as he helps her into her clothes.  “Yeah.  Can we get ice cream?”  She asks quietly, almost like she’s afraid.  

“You like ice cream?”  She nods her head, smiling.  “What kind do you like?”  She thinks about it for a second, “Daddy’s friend brought me chocolate ice cream once, I think.”  Mike picks her up and heads to the main part of the apartment.  “Then we will get some chocolate ice cream before we come back.”  


	3. Chapter 3

“Do you know how to read, Sarah?”  She’s small enough to sit in the shopping cart, so he places her in the seat and heads to the kid’s sections.  “No.”  She holds onto his hand on the cart.  “Well, I am going to teach you how to read, how’s that sound?”  She smiles at him, “Okay.”  

“Alright, let’s see here.”  They get to the kid’s books and he looks around for the right ones.  “What’s your favorite animal?”  She points to a book with an elephant on the cover, “That kind.”  He picks up the book, “That is an elephant.  Do you have a toy that looks like that?”  She nods, “But it’s at my house.”  

“I’ll go get it for you tomorrow, okay?  Or do you want a new one?”  She takes the book he’s holding and opens it up, “Can I have a new one?”  She asks, timidly, “Of course you can, sweetheart.  We can get one today that you can cuddle up with to go to bed.”  She looks at the book, wide-eyed, “M-Mike?”  She stutters, he looks up at her from the shelves of books.  

“What is it?  Are you alright?”  She points to a page in the book, “That looks like you.”  She says, showing him a man in the book.  “It does look like me, doesn’t it? Do you want that book?”  She nods, holding the book close to her chest.  He grabs a couple more first time reader books, and they head to the toy section.  

 

“Do you like playing with dolls?”  She shakes her head, “I want an elephant, please.”  Now that she knows the word for her favorite animal, she is very proud of herself.  “Alright, let’s go get you an elephant.”  They get to the stuffed animals and Mike finds a decent sized elephant and hands it to her, “You like this one?”  She cuddles it to her, “Mhmm.” 

“Alright, you want any other toys?”  She shrugs her shoulders, genuinely not sure what most toys even are.  He takes her to the doll type of toys.  “Do you like princesses? Or there’s a doctor.  Or a policewoman.”  She points to the police barbie doll.  

“I want that one.  She can be like your partner.”  He smiles at her and hands her the doll.  “I think you’d make a pretty great partner, you know that?”  He leans over the handlebar and kisses her on the nose.  “Are you gonna put my daddy in jail?”  

“Do you want your daddy to go to jail?”  She grabs his hand, with her tiny one, “Did he break the law?”  Mike nods at her and continues on to the kid movies.  “Yes, he did.  He broke the law the moment he hurt you.”  

“But he hit me when I was bad.”  Mike looks down at her, stopping, “What did you do to be so bad when he hit you?”  She looks down at their hands, “Sometimes, I would get really upset because I was hungry.  And he would hit me.  And sometimes, I would cry because he would hurt mommy.”  

Mike leans down so that he’s eye-level with her.  “Nothing that you did was bad, okay?  None of that is bad.  You’re one of the good guys.”  

“Like you?”  He nods, smoothing her hair down with his free hand, “Yeah, like me.”  He doesn’t know when it happened, or how, but he was falling in love with this little girl.  She is everything he was needing.  

 

“Alright, we’ve got toys, we’ve got books, movies, and clothes.  I think we are almost all set.  Let’s go get you some toiletries and then we can go get ice cream.”  Sarah looks up at Mike, excitedly.  

They get her some toothpaste and a toothbrush, a blue toothbrush to be exact.  And then get her a hairbrush, some soap and shampoo and a smaller towel, because the ones at the apartment are way too big for her.  

“Are we done Mike?”  She looks up at him, yawning.  “Yep, we are all done, you ready for some ice cream?”  She nods, looking around the store as they leave.  Mike notices her looking at someone in particular and stops walking, pulling them over to the side.  

“You alright? What’s wrong?”  She leans forward, placing her head on his chest.  “Is there someone here that you recognize?”  She doesn’t respond, so he rubs her back, “Baby, I need to know if there’s someone here that you’ve seen before.”  She points at someone in the checkout line, without picking her head up.  

Mike takes a photo discreetly of the man in the line and they head out to the car.  Mike also purchased a car seat for her size so that she’s safer.  He packs up the car and installs the car seat, putting her in the car.  

Once he gets to the ice cream store, he decides to go through the drive thru, since Sarah doesn’t seem very up for going in anywhere else.  

“Do you want chocolate ice scream, sweetheart?”  He looks back at her through the rearview, “Yes, please.”  He pulls up to the window and orders their ice cream.  

“Here you go, baby.”  He hands her the small cup of one scoop of chocolate ice cream.  “Thank you.”  He gets his ice cream from the window, and drives off.  

“Is it good?”  She nods, smiling.  “Good, do you want to watch a movie when we get back?”  She smiles at him, “Which one?”  He pulls into the street where his apartment is.  “Which one do you want to watch?”  

“The one with the elephant.”  He bought her Dumbo, because he figured she’d love a movie about her favorite animal.  He parks the car in the street.  “You got it.  We will get you in some comfy pajamas and get some blankets and cuddle up to watch it.”  

When he opens her door to get her out, there is chocolate ice cream all over her face and shirt.  “Oh my goodness, did you even eat any of it?”  She giggles at him, and reaches her arms out for him to pick her up.  “Do you think you can walk with me, so I can carry all of our stuff in?”  He sets her on the ground and they walk around to the back of the car.  “Yes.  Can I carry my elephant?”  He gets it out of the bag and hands it to her.  “Here you go.”  He grabs the other bags and they head up to the apartment.  

 

“Alright, are you comfy?”  She nods, he goes to put the movie in the DVD player.  He goes back to the couch and lays down behind her, so that she feels safe.  

Halfway into the movie, Jill gets home and finds Mike and Sarah asleep on the couch.  She goes over to them, pulling a blanket over both of them, and kisses Mike on the top of his head.  Which, wakes him up, since he’s trained to be a light sleeper.  

“Hey, what’s up?”  She walks over and kneels down in front of them, “How was the shopping trip?”  She looks down at Sarah, who is still sleeping.  “It was good, she noticed someone at the store, I took a picture of him to send to the bureau because I didn’t like how she reacted to him.”  

“Where’s your phone? I’ll print it out and take it tomorrow when I go in.”  He points to the hall table and she goes to grab it.  “I gotta go in tomorrow, Jill, so I can take the picture in.”  

“Why do you have to go in?”  He gets up off the couch, careful not to wake Sarah.  “I have to take her to talk to the therapist.  I put her stuff in the other bedroom, but she might have to sleep in our bed at first, she’s still super shaken up.”  Jill rubs his arms, relaxing him, “That’s fine.  Did you eat dinner?”  

“We had ice cream.”  Mike says, smiling.  “I can tell, there’s still some on her face.”  Mike looks down at Sarah, trying not to laugh, “I tried to get it all off.  I’m gonna take her up to bed, and probably lay down too, I’m exhausted.”  He leans in to kiss Jill.  “Alright, I’m gonna shower, then I’ll come to bed.”  

 

At about three in the morning, Mike is woken up by someone crawling onto his chest.  “Sarah, baby, what are you doing? Are you okay?”  She grabs onto his shoulders hugging him tight.  “What’s wrong?”  His arms wrap around her, as he gets up and carries her to the bathroom so they don’t wake Jill up.  

“I don’t feel good.”  He sets her down on the counter, and feels her forehead, “You might be running a fever.  Do you feel like you’re gonna throw up?”  She nods and he picks her up, moving her to the floor in front of the toilet.  

She ends up puking up everything he’d given her to eat that day.  Once she’s done, she starts crying, which he was prepared for.  “It’s alright, it happens to everyone, you’ll be okay.”  He grabs a hand towel from the counter and wipes her face with it.  “Mike? Is everything alright?”  Jill opens the door, seeing them on the floor, “What happened?”  

“Sarah doesn’t feel very well.”  Jill kneels down onto the floor next to them.  “Do you want some soup and juice? Will that make you feel better?”  Sarah nods and crawls over to Jill, putting her head on her chest.  Letting her pick her up.  “Do you want Mike to make you some?”  She nods again, as Mike gets up off the floor and heads to the kitchen, followed by Jill and Sarah.  

Jill stands by Mike as he makes the soup for Sarah, rocking her to calm her down.  “Sarah, do you like apple juice?”  She nods, nuzzling her head into Jill’s shoulder.  “Alright, let’s get you some.”  She goes over to the fridge and gets out a jug of apple juice, so that Mike can pour it into one of the sippy cups he bought that day.  

“Here you go baby, drink it up.”  He hands it to Sarah, who is still in Jill’s arms.  Kissing the top of her head.  “Mike?”  Sarah says, looking up at him.  “What is it, baby?”  

“Are you and Jill gonna be my new mommy and daddy?”  Jill smooths down Sarah’s hair, in a comforting manner.  “I don’t know, do you want us to be?”  She takes a sip of her apple juice and lays her head back down on Jill.  “I don’t want to go anywhere else.”  

Jill speaks up this time, “Alright sweetheart, we will see what we can do, okay?”  Sarah nods, taking another sip of her juice.  Mike goes back to the soup, putting it into a small bowl.  “Let’s go sit at the table and eat.”  He carries the bowl over, following Jill and Sarah.  

Sarah reaches her arms out to him, and he puts her in his lap, as Jill helps Sarah eat.  Making sure she doesn’t eat it too fast.  “Sarah, do you want to go with me to see John tomorrow?”  Mike asks, as she finishes up her soup.  “Why?”  She leans back into him, “Because, there are some people who want to talk to you.  And John is going to be there too, is that okay?”  

He can feel Sarah getting uneasy and rubs her sides, relaxing her.  “You don’t have to talk to anyone without me there.  I’ll be there the whole time.”  She looks up at him, “Will John be there the whole time?”  

“If you want him to, he will.”  She wraps her arms around him, yawning.  Jill takes her dishes to the sink and they head back to the bedroom.  

 

“Hi Sarah, do you remember me from yesterday?”  John asks, approaching them.  Sarah rests her head on Mike’s shoulder, “Yes, you’re John.”  Mike puts her down, so that she can walk.  She grabs onto his leg, not letting go.  “We are gonna go see a friend of mine, who is gonna talk to you.  Is that alright?”  John kneels down so that he can talk to Sarah.  

“Can you and Mike come?”  John nods, and Mike takes Sarah’s hand, leading her to the room.  “Hi there, you must be Sarah?”  A woman leans down and tries to shake her hand.  Sarah pulls away, burying her face into Mike’s leg.  “It’s okay, sweetheart, she’s a good guy too.  Remember how we talked about good guys last night?”  Sarah looks up at him.  

“Everyone here is a good guy, baby.”  He says, looking down at her.  She looks back to the woman, and shakes her hand.  “I’m Alyssa, I’m gonna ask you some questions, is that okay?”  Sarah nods, still not too sure about it.  

They all walk over to the couches in the room, and Sarah climbs into Mike’s lap.  “Sarah, what can you tell me about your home?”  Sarah looks up at Mike, “You can talk to her, go ahead.”  

“Umm, I watch movies and sleep in a big bed with Mike and Jill.  And, I got a elephant toy.”  Mike chuckles at her, “Sweetheart, she means your old home, with your mommy and daddy-”  Alyssa stops him, “Sarah, do you like living with Mike?”  She nods, “Is his house what you would consider your home?”  She nods, unsure of what the woman is talking about.  “Mike, has she talked about her parents and that house?”  

“Oh yeah, she’s told me about what her dad would do, and she talked to me about her mom.  I called in yesterday about her mom.”  Alyssa looks back to Sarah, “Sweetie, what did your daddy do?”  

“He was a bad guy, right Mike?”  She looks to him for his approval.  “Is your daddy what you would consider a bad guy?”  Alyssa asks her, “Yes, Mike said that we are the good guys, and that my daddy broke the law.”  

Alyssa looks up at Mike, an ashamed expression on her face.  “Why did Mike say that? What did your daddy do that was so bad?”  

“He hit me.”  Alyssa looks at her, with pity in her eyes.  “Did he hurt your mommy too?”  Sarah nods, “He shot my mommy.”  The little girl says it with almost no real feeling toward her mother.  

“How does that make you feel? Did you love your mommy?”  Sarah shrugs her shoulders, “She would sleep a lot, daddy would come in our room and he made me sit in the closet.  And then I would hear mommy scream, and then when he let me out, she would be sleeping.”  

Mike looks over at John and then at Alyssa.  “Sarah, you never told me that.”  She shrugs her shoulders again.  “I want to see Jill.”  She buries her head in Mike’s chest.  “Alright, I think we are done,”  Alyssa says, “can you bring her back here in a couple days to talk again?  And I need a list of her injuries.”  Mike nods, picking Sarah up and leaving the room.  “John, where’s Jill at?”  

“Should be in her office.”  He and Mike head to her office and knock before walking in.  “Hey, what are you guys doing here?”  As soon as Sarah hears Jill’s voice, she sits up, “Sarah, baby, what’s wrong?”  She holds her arms out to Jill and she takes her from Mike.  

Jill sways with Sarah in her arms, comforting her.  “Sarah, do you want to go get some lunch?”  Mike asks calmly.  She doesn’t respond, so Jill speaks up, “Sarah, sweetheart, Mike asked you a question.”  

“I’m not hungry.”  She rubs the little girl’s back, “Are you still feeling sick?”  Sarah nods, burying her head into Jill’s neck.  “Mike, can you take her home? I’ll pick up some medicine on the way home.  I’ll call to make a doctor’s appointment-” she’s cut off by Sarah freaking out in her arms.  

“Shh, you’re okay, I’ve got you.”  Sarah breaks free and runs back over to Mike.  He picks her up, holding her close.  She stops writhing and he can feel her labored breathing.  “Hey, relax, it’s okay.  You’re okay.  I’m here.”  He walks her over to the couch and sits down with her.  “Jill, can you bring me your coat?”  She hands it to him and he covers Sarah up.  “I’m gonna head home, when do you get done here?”

“Not until later tonight.”  Mike stands up, holding the blanket over Sarah, her breathing becomes more regular.  He looks down and sees that her eyes are closed.  “She fell asleep.  I’ll see you tonight, love.”  He leans down, giving Jill a quick peck on the lips.  

 

“Mike, I don’t want to go to the doctor.”  Mike lays her down in his and Jill’s bed, pulling the covers over her.  “I know, but it might make you feel better.  I’ll be there with you the whole time, so will Jill.  I promise everything's gonna be okay.”  He rubs the top of her head with his thumb, “Mike, is my daddy gonna find me?”  

“No, baby, your daddy won’t find you here.  You’re safe.”  She grabs his hand before he can pull it away, “I don’t like being by myself.”  Her voice is so small, he can’t leave her there.  “Alright, I’ll lay down with you until you fall asleep.  How’s that sound?”  She smiles up at him as he stands up, pulling off his shoes.  He lies down next to her, and she crawls on top of him, falling asleep.  

 

Mike wakes up to something wet on his arm, he opens his eyes and doesn’t see Sarah on top of him anymore.  He looks over and there’s puke on the other side of the bed.  “Sarah? Sweetheart, where are you?”  He tries to stay calm, but he’s a little freaked out, because she is probably hiding again.  

He gets out of bed and hears a sniffle, he looks under the bed where the sound came from, “Sarah, why are you under the bed?”  Jill walks into their bedroom.  “Where’s Sarah? And why is there puke on the bed?”  

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t get to the bathroom.”  She hears a small voice under the bed and walks over, kneeling down next to Mike.  “That’s okay, sweetie.  Come on out, let’s get you in the bath.  I’ll clean up the bed, okay?”  Jill extends her hand to Sarah and she takes it.  

“Do you want Mike to give you your bath?”  Sarah nods, leaning against him.  He feels her forehead, without her realizing it.  “She’s warm.” He mouths to Jill.  

 

He gets Sarah into the tub, and starts washing her hair.  “Sarah, if you feel sick, you can wake me up, I don’t want you to have to be uncomfortable, okay?”  She nods, playing with the bubbles in the bath.  “Mike, do I gotta go to the doctor?”  He chuckles at her grammar.  

“Maybe, we are gonna get some medicine in you and see if that helps.”  He rinses out her hair with a little plastic cup, shielding her eyes from the soap.  “You wanna play in the tub some more, or are you ready to come out?”  

“I wanna play.”  She giggles, looking up at him.  “Alright, I’m gonna go get you some pajamas, I’ll be right back.”  He walks into the spare room where her clothes are and gets her underwear and pajamas out of the drawers.  “Hey, she still in the tub?”  Mike nods, leaning against the dresser.  He pinches the bridge of his nose, “I found another bruise I hadn’t seen before.”  

Jill wraps her arms around his waist, “Where at baby?”  He presses a kiss to her forehead, “I was washing her feet, and there was a bruise on her inner thigh, a little too far up.”  Jill lets out a long sigh, “Fuck.”  

“Mike! I’m ready!”  They hear from the bathroom in the other room.  Jill looks up at him, laughing, “She is obsessed with you, babe.”  He laughs at that, and heads to get her out of the tub.  

 

“Did you call for me?”  He opens the door, putting his hands on his hips.  “Yes!” She giggles, “You ready to get out?”  She nods, lifting her arms up.  He grabs a towel and picks her up out of the tub, setting her on the floor.  

“Can we watch the princess movie, Mike?”  He kneels down eye-level to her.  He towel dries her hair, before wrapping the towel around her shoulders.  “Of course we can baby, what do you want to eat for dinner?”  Mike grabs the hairbrush off of the counter and starts brushing through her hair.  

“Soup!”  He laughs at her, picking her up and taking her into the bedroom.  “Same soup as last night?”  She nods as he sits her down on the bed.  He grabs the pajamas next to her and helps her get dressed.  “Alright, let’s go get your movie situated while I make dinner.”  

 

“I changed my mind, I don’t want the princess movie.”  Mike looks up at her from the stack of movies, “Which one you want?”  He asks, noticing how Jill is walking into the living room.  “The puppy movie!”  

“101 Dalmatians?”  Jill asks, sitting down next to her.  “Yeah, that one!”  Mike looks at Jill confused because he didn’t buy her that one, “She saw my movie collection yesterday.”  

“Ah, well, I am going to go make some soup for the little one, do you want anything to eat babe?”  Mike puts the movie in the dvd player, before getting up.  “Yeah, can you make me some spaghetti?”  He nods, leaning down to kiss her.  “Mike, I want soup.”  Sarah says, as he pulls away from Jill.  

“Oh, you want soup?”  She nods at him, smiling sheepishly.  He picks her up, flipping her upside down, tickling her, “You want some soup?”  She starts laughing uncontrollably.  “Jill! Help!”  Jill gets up off the couch and pulls her out of Mike’s arms.  “Mike.  Soup.”  Sarah orders him.  “Magic word?”  

“Please!”  He bends down, kissing Sarah on the nose.  “Fine, only because you asked nicely.”      


	4. Chapter 4

“You sure you wanna sleep in the big girl room tonight?”  Sarah has been living with Mike and Jill for about two weeks, and she has decided that she can sleep on her own now.  “Yes, I like this room, it’s pretty.”  

“That’s because Jill decorated it, just for you,”  He pulls the covers over her, “Sarah, sweetheart, I have a question.”  She looks up at him, eyes wide, “Would you want me and Jill to be your new mommy and daddy?”  He moves her hair from her face.  “Like forever?”  He nods, “Yeah, if you want.”  

“Would my last name change too?”  He nods again, “Yep, it would change.  Is that alright?”  She thinks about it for a minute, “Mike, is my daddy gone for good?”  

“He will be.”  She sits up and grabs his hand, holding it tight, “I want my last name to be Warren, like yours.  I don’t want to go away.”  He pulls her close to him, “I can make that happen, nobody is gonna take you away from me.”  

Sarah lies back down on the bed, “Alright, princess, get some sleep.  I love you sweetheart.”  He presses a kiss to her forehead.  “I love you too, Mike.”  He smiles at her before turning the light off and heading to his own bedroom.  

 

“Did you talk to her?”  Jill asks, walking out of the bathroom, pulling her hair into a bun.  “Yeah, I did.”  He gets into bed, pulling his shirt over his head and throwing it into the hamper.  “What’d she say?”  

“She said, ‘I want my last name to be Warren, like yours.’”  Jill climbs into bed and crawls over to Mike, straddling his lap.  “That’s the cutest thing I’ve ever heard.”  She leans down, kissing him.  Moving down from his lips to his jaw and neck.  “I like it when you have stubble, babe.”  He chuckles, situating himself.  

“Why do you think I didn’t shave yesterday?”  She pulls her head back up and starts kissing him again.  

 

By the time Jill’s shirt and shorts were off, they heard rustling and whimpering coming from Sarah’s room.  Jill, sensing that Mike was ready to run for her, starts kissing down his chest, “She’ll be fine, just give her a minute to settle.”  Once she gets to Mike’s waist, they hear more whimpering.  “Jill, I can’t, I have to check on her.”  Jill gets up and moves to her side of the bed.  Mike jumps up out of bed and runs into Sarah’s room.  

When he gets into her room, he sees Sarah by the window, the lights are on.  “Hey, what are you doing up?”  Sarah quickly turns around to see Mike, “My daddy is outside.”  Mike walks over to the window, and sees that there’s nothing outside.  “Baby, what are you talking about? There’s no one out there.”  

He bends down and wraps an arm around her protectively.  “He’s out there, I was just talking to him, I promise.”  He presses a kiss on her cheek, “Alright, it’s okay.  Come in here with me and Jill.”  

“No!”  She screams, he pulls away from her, confused.  “I can sleep in here.”  She gets quiet again.  

“Okay, if anything happens, or someone is out there, come in our room, okay?”  He picks her up and puts her back in bed, “Okay, Mike.”  He kisses her on the forehead and turns the lights out.  

“Is she alright?”  Jill asks as Mike climbs back into bed.  “She said her dad was outside, but when I looked out the window, nobody was out there.  She insisted on staying in that room.  Which makes me anxious.”  Jill runs her hand down his chest, relaxing him.  

All of a sudden they hear a loud gasp and footsteps in the other room.  “Mike help-!”  Mike runs out of his bedroom, followed by Jill and they run into Sarah’s room.  He walks in, turning on the main light.  Revealing Vince, holding Sarah down, her mouth covered by one of his hands and his other hand is on her neck.  Mike runs up to the bed, “Get the hell off of her!”  He throws the guy off of the bed.  

“Baby, go to Jill please.”  Sarah shakes her head, “No, Mike!”  Mike looks at her with tears in his eyes, he grabs the gun off of the top shelf of Sarah’s closet.  He points the gun at Vince on the floor.  “Baby, please.  Jill, take her!”  Jill runs over to the bed, pulling Sarah into her arms.  “Come on, sweetheart, let’s go to mine and Mike’s room.”  

“No! I’m staying with Mike!”  Jill pulls her away from the room, hearing Mike and the Vince fighting.  “How the hell did you get in here?  How did you find her?”  Mike yells, Jill smooths down Sarah’s hair, trying to calm her down.  “Everything is going to be okay, alright? Mike is going to be fine.”  

Jill looks down at her, just now noticing the blood on Sarah’s shoulder.  “Sarah? What happened to your shoulder?”  Sarah looks up at her with tears in her eyes, “I didn’t want you to be upset with me.”  Jill pulls Sarah’s top off, revealing a cut on her arm, still bleeding.  Jill picks Sarah’s shirt back up so that she can use it to apply pressure to the cut.  Sarah backs away before she can.  

“Baby, I need to see it.”  She shakes her head, bursting into a full blown cry.  “I want Mike!”  She yells.  “Mike, I’m calling for backup, Sarah is bleeding!”  Jill runs into hers and Mike’s room, pulling Sarah in with her, and calls Mike’s partner for a team.  She holds onto Sarah, who’s still screaming and crying for Mike.  

They hear a thud and footsteps running into the room.  “Sarah, baby come here, let me see.”  She runs over to Mike and he holds her shirt, that was tossed to him by Jill, onto Sarah’s shoulder.  They hear sirens coming closer, they head outside to meet with the team, they are met with an ambulance, local PD, and their team.  

Mike runs Sarah over to the ambulance, “Check her out first, she’s the only one of us that’s injured.”  He hands her off to an EMT, as she’s screaming and crying for him.  “Jill, stay with her, I’m gonna take this son of a bitch down myself.”  He runs back into the apartment, followed by John and the team.  

They run to Sarah’s room, seeing Vince standing up.  “John, how did this prick get out?”  Mike asks, pulling Vince’s arms behind his back.  “He made bail, Mike.”  

“Yeah? Not after this, you’re gone, asshole.  You killed your wife, who we still have yet to find the body of.  And you’ve once again, harmed your own daughter.  Who the fuck is so messed up, that they would harm an innocent child? Especially one that is as sweet as Sarah.”  

“Okay, Mike, that’s enough.”  John says, taking VInce from him.  “I don’t think it is, John.”  Mike punches Vince in the gut, “Mike! Outside, now!”  Mike heads outside to meet with Jill and Sarah, but when he gets there, the ambulance is gone, and so is Sarah.  

“Where is she? Where’s Sarah?”  Mike asks, looking around, “They wouldn’t let me go in the ambulance with her, I tried to get them to wait, but they wouldn’t.  They think we are the reason for her injuries.”  She falls into Mike’s chest, crying.  “It’s okay, let’s go to the hospital while they deal with Vince.”  They head to Mike’s car to the hospital.  

 

“We need to see her, she’s living with us.”  Mike barks at a nurse.  “Yes, and in that time, she has managed a minor stab wound.”  Mike pinches the bridge of his nose, “Not by me or my girlfriend, it was by her psychotic criminal father.  We locked him up for good, tonight.  Please, let me see her.”  The last part sounds more of a plea than an angry order.  

“I’ll let you stand outside of her room, but you cannot see her unless you’re family.”  She’s stern, but understanding of the situation.  “We are her family! We are all she has, and if you won’t let me in that room, I swear to god.” Jill rubs Mike’s back, “Sir, it is protocol, you cannot be in her room unless you're family.”  

All of a sudden, they hear a scream, then a small voice yell, “Mike! Help me!”  Mike runs down the hall to Sarah’s room. There's a doctor trying to bandage up her shoulder, and another trying to look at her other remaining injuries. 

“Mike!” He runs over to the bed and takes her hand, kissing her on the forehead, “I'm here, princess. I'm here.” A nurse comes in, out of breath. 

“Sir, I told you that you can't be in here.” She says sternly. She grabs onto his arm pulling him away from the bed. “No, she needs me!” He tries running toward the bed again, when he feels another, stronger arm pull him back. 

“Get the hell off of me! She needs me!” He continues trying to fight the now three people pulling him away. He hears Sarah screaming again and his heart falls into his stomach, knowing he can't do anything for her. The nurses and doctor manage to pull him into the hallway, where Jill is, he leans up against the wall and slides down in a sitting position. 

Jill rubs the back of his neck, kissing his cheek. “She'll be okay, Mike. We will just sit out here and wait.” Mike has tears running down his face, his heart breaking because he is completely helpless when Sarah needs him the most. 

 

“Mike Warren, Jill Samuels?” They stand up, seeing the child services woman who is helping them adopt Sarah. 

“Why won't they let me see her? She needs me.” Is the only words Mike can utter, his voice, completely strained. “Mike, I will see what I can do, I'll try to get the adoption papers passed through tonight, but it will be difficult.”  Mike steps closer to her, “Do what it takes, or I will find someone else.”  

The doctor walks out of Sarah’s room.  “Mr. Warren, I’m sorry that you’re unable to visit her.  We’ve given her some anaesthetics so that she may sleep through the night.”  Jill grabs Mike’s hand, rubbing her thumb over his knuckles, “Can we see her?  Is she alright?”  The doctor nods, “She’s fine,” he lets out a breath, “I’m not supposed to do this, but yes, you may see her.”  

Mike rushes into Sarah’s room holding Jill’s hand, still.  Mike pulls a chair next to the bed, allowing Jill to sit in it.  Mike sits on the arm of the chair, and grabs Sarah’s hand.  Holding it tight.  “Mr. Warren, may I speak with you, please?”  Mike gets up and walks over to the doctor.  

“She’s going to be alright, but I need you to know that it will take her some time to recover.  Someone as small as she is, losing that much blood, and in that much pain.”  Mike nods, slowly, “I understand, we are getting adoption papers in order, then she will be much more comfortable, living with us.”  

“I’m afraid there’s the issue of your careers, are you sure that you’re a good fit for her?”  Mike, taking great offense to this, raises his voice, “I’m the perfect fit, she belongs with me and Jill, nobody is taking her from me.”  

“Okay, I apologize, only one of you can stay in here at a time, since you’re not family.”  Mike looks over at Sarah, who is still asleep, then back to the doctor.  “Alright, thank you.”  They shake hands and Mike goes back over to Jill, kissing her on the top of the head.  “The doctor said only one of us can stay at a time.  You wanna stay tonight, or go back home?”  

“I’ll go, you should be the one she sees when she wakes up.”  She stands up and wraps her arms around Mike’s neck.  “When she wakes up, tell her I’ll be over here as soon as possible.  I have to be at work for a bit tomorrow, but I’ll be here no later than one.”  She kisses him, softly, “Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow.  I love you.”  

She smiles at him, “I’ll bring you some clothes and stuff when I come back.  I love you too.”  She heads out of the hospital room, and Mike is back in the chair, holding Sarah’s hand.  He ends up dozing off, with his head near Sarah’s right, uninjured shoulder. 

 

“M-Mike?”  Mike picks his head up, “Hey, princess, how are you feeling?”  He moves from the chair to the edge of the bed.  “My arm hurts, Mike.”  Her eyes start filling with tears, “Hey, hey, hey, don’t cry angel.  I know it hurts, but you have to be strong.  All the best girls are, right?”  She nods, smiling a bit.  

“Mike, why does my daddy hate me?”  He leans down, pressing a kiss to her forehead, “I don’t know, baby, I don’t know.  But, you don’t deserve anything he’s done to you, do you understand? You’re a good kid, just like we talked about before.”  

“Okay, where’s Jill?”  She tries sitting up, but a pain goes through her arm, causing her to cry out, “Hey, relax, lie back and just breathe, okay?”  He smooths her hair down off her forehead, “Jill is gonna be back as soon as she can, she had to be at work for a bit this morning.”  

“Will you cuddle with me?”  Sarah asks Mike.  He smiles down at her, “How can I say no to a request like that?”  He scoots her over a bit and lies down next to her, wrapping her up in his arms so she’s comfortable.  “Mike, are bad people gonna come take me away from you?”  

“Of course not, you’re stuck with me, unfortunately.”  She giggles, looking down at his giant hand next to her tiny one.  “I like being stuck with you.  I love you, Mike.”  

“I love you too, munchkin.  Now go to sleep, you need to rest.” 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is introducing a big part of the plot, so it's kind of all over the place, I'm sorry.

“Mike, the papers were finalized!”  Jill yells, running into the hospital room.  They’d been switching who stayed with Sarah for four days, and it was Mike’s turn that night.  He turns around, running over to her, “Are you serious?”  He hugs her, tight, tears in his eyes.  “Yes, she’s coming with us, for good.”  He runs back over to Sarah, who is asleep on the bed.  

“Baby, wake up.” Mike sits at the edge of the bed, rubbing his thumb along Sarah’s arm. “Mike, what's going on?”  He smiles down at her, as Jill walks over behind Mike, “Sarah, remember how we asked if you wanted us to be your mommy and daddy?”  

She nods, a bit confused.  “Well, the lady that you talked to last week about living with us said that we are officially your new parents.”  Sarah’s smile grows and she sits up, leaning forward to hug Mike.  “You mean, I get to live with you guys forever and ever?”  Mike nods his head, holding her tight.  “Forever and ever, princess.”  

The doctor walks in and Sarah lays back down.  “How are you feeling today Ms. Sarah?”  She smiles up at him, “I’m feeling great!”  Mike and Jill laugh at her, “And why might that be?”  The doctor asks, checking her bandages, “Because, I have a new mommy and daddy!”  

The doctor looks over at Mike and Jill, “Is that so? Congratulations, guys.”  He puts a new bandage on Sarah’s shoulder, “Well, I think you’ll be able to go home tonight, if you’re feeling up to it.”  

“Mike, can we get ice cream on the way home?”  Sarah asks, excitedly, “Of course we can get ice cream, what else would we have for a celebration?”  Jill sits down on the bed, next to Mike.  “Sarah, I have another very important question for you.”  She looks up at Jill, wide-eyed.  

“We need to find a school for you to go to, but I have a friend from work who is a homeschool teacher.  So do you want to try out real school first?”  She thinks about it, looking from Sarah to Mike, “Can my daddy find me at school?”  Mike grabs her hand, “Oh, sweetheart, your daddy won’t be able to get you ever again, okay?”  

The doctor looks at Mike and Jill, “I’m gonna be completely honest, she should, in my opinion, try out a public school.  She needs to be around kids, she’s never been around anyone her own age before.”  

“Does that sound okay with you, princess?”  Mike asks, Sarah nods at him, still uneasy,  “And you can go with me too, right?”  Mike sighs, looking down, “I can’t, baby, I’ll be at work while you’re at school.  But there’s a bunch of fun things that you do at school.  Like color and learn math and read.  You love to read.”  Sarah crawls over to his lap, resting her head on his chest.  

“I love to read with you, nobody else.  I’m not going.”  Jill looks down at her, “Sarah, don’t be like that.  Give it a chance, for us, please.”  Sarah looks up at Mike, “Don’t make me go, Mike, I wanna stay with you.”  She wraps her arms around him.  

Jill gives him a stern look, he gives in to Jill, because he knows he has to be a parent and not just a friend now, “Sarah, we are gonna try out real school, okay?”  She pulls away from him and lies back down.  She crosses her arms over her chest.  “Fine.”  She sticks her lip out, pouting.  

“Sarah, stop that.  We don’t get angry just because something didn’t go our way, do you understand? We take it in stride and make the best of it.”  Mike says, he’s a little more angry than he meant to sound, but he doesn’t like to upset her.  So, he’s more angry at Jill than Sarah.  

 

“Mike, are you sleeping?”  Sarah pats him on the head, he opens his eyes, “What’s wrong baby?”  She steps up on the bed and climbs in with him, “I don’t like sleeping in my room, it’s scary.”  He wraps his arms around her, protectively, closing his eyes again.  “Okay, it’ll be alright.  Go back to sleep.”  

 

A few days after Sarah is home, Mike wakes her up before the sun even rises to get her ready for her first day of school.  “Mike, I don’t wanna go.”  He sits her in front of the mirror, brushing her hair as she brushes her teeth.  “You’re going, you promised us one week, if you absolutely hate it, we will homeschool you, okay?”  

She finishes brushing her teeth and turns around to look at him, “Okay, will you go with me, just for today?”  He picks her up and takes her back into her room to get dressed.  “No, I will not, I’ll stay for a bit, but I have to go to work.  Jill is gonna pick you up from school, okay?”  He goes over to her closet, picking out the outfit Jill left for him to put her in.  

“Okay, Mike.”  She pulls off her shirt, taking the one he hands to her.  “And remember what I told you last night, if anyone who isn’t me or Jill tries to pick you up, don’t go with them.  Your teacher is gonna be watching out for you, she knows the two of us, got it?”   

She nods, “Copy that, Mike.”  He hands her a pair of jeans, and looks at her, confused.  “Where have you heard that?”  She jumps off the bed to put on her jeans, “I heard you and John say that yesterday at your work,” she looks back up at him, “I can’t do the button.”  He kneels down and helps her button up her jeans.  

“Alright, we gotta go, do you want a breakfast sandwich from Starbucks?”  She nods, reaching her arms up for him to carry her.  They head to the car and are on their way to Sarah’s first day of school.  

 

“Everybody, we have a new student, this is Sarah Warren.”  Her new teacher announces, Sarah grabs onto Mike’s leg, tightly.  He bends down, and wraps an arm around her waist, “It’s okay baby, you’re gonna have so much fun.”  Her teacher bends down and extends her hand to Sarah, “I’m Mrs. Smith, Sarah what kind of things do you like to do? We are having free time right now.”  

She buries her head in Mike’s shoulder.  “Do you mind if I kinda walk around with her? Get her used to everything?”  Mrs. Smith winks at him and nods, “Of course.  I’ll be with some students over in the reading corner, if you need me.”  He nods, pulling Sarah off of him.  “Come on baby, let’s go look around.”  

She reaches her arms up, wanting him to carry her, “You need to be a big girl today, okay? I’ll hold your hand, though.”  He stands up, taking her tiny hand in his.  “Oh, look, there’s a coloring table over here, you like to color, don’t you?”  She buries her head in his leg, again.  He walks her over to the table and kneels down next to her.  

“Look, there’s some nice kids over here that’ll color with you, I’m sure.”  A little boy walks over to her and Mike, “Hi, I’m Charlie, do you want to color with me?”  Mike looks up at the little boy, smiling, then back down at Sarah.  “Hey, he asked you a question, sweetheart, do you want to color with him?”  She shakes her head, “Mike, I wanna go to your work with you.”  

She starts crying into his shoulder, “Sarah, come on sweetie, you gotta stay here today.”  She looks up at him, and hits him on the chest, “I’m not staying!”  By now, the whole classroom is watching, including the teacher and student teacher.  “Sarah, stop it, do not hit, ever.”  He grabs her hands, stopping her.  Mrs. Smith walks over behind Sarah, “Sweetheart, how about we go over to the reading corner.  Mike told me that you love to read.”  

“I want Jill! I don’t want to be here!”  She screams again.  Mike looks up at Mrs. Smith as the student teacher, Mr. Hunt is walking over to help out.  “I’m gonna head out.  I have to get to the office.”  Jill hears him, and latches onto his suit jacket.  “Mike, please don’t go!”  He knows she’s scared, but she has to learn to be independent from him.  “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, princess. I love you.”  Mr. Hunt is able to pull her away from him.  

“I hate you!”  Is the last thing he hears her say as he walks out of the classroom.  He signs out of the school and slowly walks to his car.  Once he’s in the car, the tears start flowing down his face.  He bangs his fists into the top of the steering wheel, until his phone rings.  He looks down and sees that it’s Jill.  He doesn’t answer it, knowing he’ll be at the offices soon anyways.  

 

“Hey, how’d it go? Was she good?”  He looks up, seeing Jill in his door.  “Yeah,” he lies, “she was great.”  His voice cracks a bit, which Jill notices.  “She wasn’t was she?”  He shakes his head, throwing his face into his hands.  “She said she hated me as I was leaving.  And she hit me.  She hates me, Jill.”  Jill walks over to him, rubbing his shoulders.  

“She doesn’t hate you, Mike.  She was just anxious being away from us all day.  I’m sure that she’s fine now, and reading and coloring with some new friends.”  Mike’s phone begins ringing.  He looks over, noticing that it’s Sarah’s school, which makes his heart shake.  

 

“Sarah got in trouble, one of us has to go to the school to get her.”  Mike rakes his hands down his face, “You go, I have a shit ton of work to do today, and can’t leave the offices till three.”  He stands up and hugs and kisses Jill.  “Okay, wish me luck.”  She kisses him again, “Good luck babe, I love you.”  

“Love you too.”  He heads out of the offices and down to his car, to go back to the school he was at three hours before.  

 

He walks into the school, heading straight to the office.  “Mr. Warren, I presume.”  He turns around from the check-in desk, seeing the principal, Mrs. Linley.  “Yes, that’s me.  Where’s Sarah?”  She extends her hand for him to shake.  “I’d like to talk to you alone, first.”  He follows her to her office, which is conveniently right next to the front office.  

“So, what is Sarah’s home life like?”  She asks, as Mike takes a seat across from her desk.  “Stable, compared to her old home.  We keep her away from the specifics of our jobs as much as possible, if you’re insinuating that we are the reason she did whatever she did.”  

She smirks at him, “Mr. Warren, I don’t mean to offend you, it’s just that we’ve never had issues with children being aggressive or violent before.”  He sits up in his seat, extremely uncomfortable.  “You still haven’t told me what she did, Mrs. Linley.”  His tone was a little more bitter than he had expected to come out.  “She hit another student, Mr. Warren.  Multiple times.”

 

“Sarah, Mike is here for you.”  Mike hears Mrs. Linley say, holding the door open.  Sarah walks in and runs to Mike, jumping into his lap.  “I’m sorry, Mike, I didn’t mean to do it.”  She buries her head into his chest, holding him tight.  “Hey, look at me, please.”  She looks up at him, “I told you, we don’t hit, ever, just this morning.  Why’d you hit them?”  

“He tried to hug me, and you said that anytime someone tries to touch me in a way I don’t like, to tell them no, but he kept trying.  Then, he said I was a bad girl because I hit him, but you said I’m a good girl, right?”  He squeezes her into a tight hug, “You are a good girl, but good girls don’t hit people.  No matter what they say or do, okay?”  She nods, sniffling from crying.  

“Is that all you’re going to do?”  Mrs. Linley says from the door.  “I’m sorry?”  Mike asks, genuinely confused by what she means.  “No punishment? Just that?”  Mike stands up, holding Sarah in his arms.  “Yes, because she hit him out of fear.  That’s what her entire life has been.  Now, if you’d like to criticize me and  _ my _ daughter some more, don’t.  Because we are done at this school.  If you’ll excuse me.”  He pushes his way out the door, still carrying Sarah.  

“Let’s go get your stuff from the classroom, then we’ll head home.”  She clutches his shirt tighter, “It’s okay, you don’t have to talk or anything.”  They get to the classroom and Mike opens the door, sticking his head in.  “Hi, I need to grab Sarah’s things, before we go.”  Mrs. Smith gives him a sad smile, walking over to grab Sarah’s backpack and lunchbox.  

“Here you go.  Will she be back tomorrow?”  Mike shakes his head, “Unfortunately, no, we are going to be finding somewhere else for her to go to school.”  Mrs. Smith nods her head, understanding.  She rubs Sarah’s back, but in return gets her hand knocked off by Sarah.  

“Sarah, no, apologize to Mrs. Smith.”  Sarah kicks her feet against Mike’s hip, “I wanna go home!”  Mrs. Smith shakes her head at him, “It’s alright, she’s been through enough, there’s no need to apologize to me.”  Mike nods, understanding.  “Thank you, I’m really sorry.”  

 

“Where is she?”  Jill asks, setting her purse down on the coffee table.  “She’s sleeping right now, come here, I need to tell you what happened today.”  Jll sits down on the couch next to him as he turns the volume down.  “A boy in her class was trying to hug her, she told him no, he kept trying, she hit him.  A few times.”  Jill lays her head down in Mike’s lap, “Jesus, Mike.  What did her principal say? Is she suspended?”  

“She’s not going back to that school.”  Jill sits up, “What do you mean? They expelled her? It was her first day!”  

“No, I pulled her out, the principal was a real bitch who couldn’t mind her own business.  She was expecting me to fully discipline Sarah then and there.  She fully blamed Sarah, and didn’t even say a damn thing about the other kid.”  Jill rubs Mike’s stubble on his neck.  “Mike? Why are you angry?”  He looks over and sees Sarah standing behind the couch.  

“Come here baby, let’s talk for a bit.”  Jill says, motioning for Sarah to sit with them.  She carries her giant stuffed elephant over to the couch and climbs into Mike’s lap.  “Sarah, Mike and I are very disappointed in you today.  You don’t hit people.  Remember that movie we were watching the other day?”  She nods her head, “The one with the mean lady and the girl with the pretty hair?”  Jill nods, “Yeah, that one.  Remember how her hurting the man, only resulted in her getting hurt even worse?”  

Sarah nods, “We don’t hurt people, who aren’t hurting us.  It makes us seem like bad guys.  Do you understand what I’m saying?”  Sarah leans back into Mike’s chest and cuddles into her stuffed animal.  “But, Mike said if someone is touching me without my permission, to make them stop.”  Mike kisses the top of her head, before looking down at her.  “I meant someone who could really be causing you harm, sweetie.”  

She looks down at her elephant, “Okay, I’m sorry.  Can I go to my room and play now?”  Jill nods, “Yes, you can.  I’m gonna call my tutor friend to come over for dinner tonight so you can meet her, okay?”  

“Okay Jill!”  She jumps off the couch and runs into her room.  Jill pulls out her phone, to call her friend and Mike heads to make dinner. 


	6. Chapter 6

“Sarah, let’s go! Jill is waiting in the car!”  Sarah comes running into the main hallway, her backpack on and her shoes on the wrong feet.  “I’m ready, Mike!”  He looks down at her, laughing, “Not quite yet, Slugger.”  This quickly became her roommate after her almost first day of public school.  But, Mike and Jill decided homeschooling her would probably be for the best.  At least for a little bit.  

“Why do you call me that?”  Sarah asks, as Mike fixes her shoes.  “Because, that’s what people sometimes call other people that have been in a fight before.”  He stands up and lifts her up, carrying her out to the car.  “Jill, can you go to my teacher with me?”  Sarah asks as Mike puts her in her carseat, “I’ll take you to her, but I can’t stay with you because I have work to do.  But, you’ll be in the offices, so if you need us, we are in the same building.”  

 

When they get to the FBI offices, Mike and Jill walk Sarah to the office of her tutor, Miss Renee, and Mike heads out to his meeting.  “Alright, I’ll be back around 2, and me, you and Mike will all go out for ice cream, and if you’re a good girl, you get to pick out a new book or movie to buy.”  Sarah hugs Jill, “Okay, can I get chocolate ice cream?”  

“Of course you can.  Now go, Miss Renee is gonna be wondering why we’re out in the hallway.”  Sarah giggles and runs through the door, over to the beanbag chair.  “Well, hello Miss Sarah, how are you today?”  

“I’m good, can we read, please?”  Miss Renee grabs a handful of books and carries them over to Sarah, “You choose a book, and we will read it together, how’s that sound?”  Sarah looks through the pile of books, choosing just the right one.  

 

“I’m sure she was fine, Mike.  She loved Renee when she came over for dinner.”  Jill and Mike head to Renee’s office and open the door.  “Mike!”  Sarah runs and jumps into his arms.  “Sarah, we aren’t done learning how to write your name yet.”  Renee says from the desk across the room.  

“But, Mike is here, and so is Jill, which means the day is over.”  Mike puts Sarah down, “Baby, you have to finish your work before we can go.  Me and Jill will be right here.”  She runs back over to Renee and finishes her work.  Before she goes back to Mike and Jill, Renee helps her put her folder in her backpack of all the work they did.  She carries her backpack over to Mike and Jill, handing it to Mike.  

“Jill said we could get ice cream on the way home, Mike.”  Jill grabs Sarah’s hand and they head out of the offices.  

“What kind of ice cream you want, kiddo?”  Mike asks Sarah, fastening her seatbelt.  “Chocolate, please!”  

“Alright, chocolate ice cream for the smartest kid on the planet.”  He leans forward, puckering his lips, “Kiss please.”  She leans up and kisses him.  “Thank you lovebug.”  He closes the door and gets into the driver’s seat and drives to get them ice cream.  

 

“Mike, can we watch Dumbo?”  Sarah asks as she takes a bite of her mac and cheese.  “Don’t talk with your mouth full, Sarah.”  Jill intervenes.  Sarah swallows her food and giggles, “Sorry Jill, but can we watch it after dinner?”  Mike sighs, “Is your work for Miss Renee finished?”  Sarah shrugs, “Sure.”  

“Uh uh, I don’t think so, homework first, then bath, then if it’s not bedtime, we will watch it, okay?”  By now, it’s about six o’clock, so Mike knew they weren’t gonna get to it tonight.  After they finish up eating, Jill does the dishes while Mike gets to work on a new case and Sarah starts on her homework.  

 

“Mike! Can you come help me?”  Sarah yells from the kitchen.  He runs in from his office, “What do you need help with?”  He sits down next to her at the table, and looks at her homework.  “I don’t know how to add these numbers.”  She says, frustrated.  “Alright, well that’s easy once you get the hang of it, here I’ll get something to help you out.”  He gets up and goes over to the cabinet with the Oreos, and then goes back to the kitchen table.  

“Alright, so you’ve got,” he looks at the equation on the worksheet, “three and then you need to add six.”  He opens up the package and pulls out three Oreos.  “Okay, so we’ve got three Oreos, and need to add six of them.  Count out six Oreos and put them on the table, baby.”  She sits up in her chair, and counts out six oreos, placing them next to the other three.  

“Now, just count how many there are.”  Mike says, helping her count them out.  “That’s nine!”  Sarah exclaims, “Exactly! See? That’s not so hard, is it?”  She shakes her head and takes one of the Oreos eating it, Mike does the same.  “Let me go get some milk to wash these down, put the rest of them back, please.”  

Sarah takes one more, before putting them all back.  When Mike gets back over to the table, he notices her eating the second one.  “Did you eat another cookie?”  She nods, her mouth full of cookie.  “You little cookie monster!”  She giggles at him and jumps up from the kitchen table.  He chases her into the living room, he picks her up and throws her onto the couch, pinning her down and tickling her sides.  

He thought she was laughing until he hears her let out a blood curdling scream.  He stands up and looks down at her, she has a terrified look on her face, tears streaming down her cheeks.  “Hey, hey, what’s wrong sweetheart?”  She climbs off the couch and runs to Mike and Jill’s room, where Jill just got out of the shower.  

“Jill! Help me!”  She latches onto Jill’s leg, “What happened? Where’s Mike?”  Sarah squeezes Jill’s leg harder, “Mike, he, he-”  She bends down and picks her up.  “Mike what baby?”  Mike runs into the bedroom and over to Jill and Sarah.  Jill pushes Sarah’s head into her shoulder, “It’s okay baby. I’m here.”  

Mike runs his hand down Sarah’s back and she flinches under his touch.  “Sarah, tell me what I did, please.”  Jill rocks her, calming her down.  “Sarah, why are you upset with Mike?”  She carries her over to the bed and sits down on the edge.  Mike kneels down in front of them, “He did what daddy’s friend used to do.”  Mike looks up at Jill.  

“Sarah, I’m so sorry, I would never even think about hurting you, I promise.  Please forgive me?”  She pulls away from Jill and looks down at Mike.  “I forgive you Mikey.”  She jumps forward wrapping her arms around his neck tight.   


	7. Chapter 7

“Sarah, you’re going to talk to this nice lady about what you told us last night, okay?  And then you get to go to Miss Renee.”  Mike gets up from the couch, leaning down and kissing the top of her head before walking out of the therapist’s office and back to his own.

“So, Sarah, Mike tells me that something happened last night at home that upset you.”  Sarah looks up at her, “Do you have any colors?”  The therapist gets up and goes over to her desk, getting a box of crayons and a folder of coloring pages out.  “Here you go, now, I’m Miss Kelly, and I’m very good friends with Mike and Jill.  They told me you got very upset with Mike last night, you wanna tell me why?”  

“He held me down like the man in my old home did.”  Sarah gets out the crayons and starts coloring a picture of a dog for Mike.  “Who was this man?”  

“My daddy’s friend, he came over once a week.”  Kelly kneels down at the coffee table with Sarah, watching her.  “You’re really great at coloring, Sarah.”  

“Mike taught me how.  I love to color.”  Kelly grabs a coloring page and a crayon and starts coloring it.  “Miss Kelly, are you gonna ask me about my daddy’s friend anymore?”  

“Is it okay if I do?”  Sarah nods, switching colors.  “What did your daddy’s friend do to you, exactly?”     

Sarah looks up at the woman, then back down at her coloring page.  “He would come in my room and he hit my mommy, then he picked me up and held me down on the bed.”  She continues coloring, not looking up at Kelly.  

“Did he hurt you when he did that?”  Sarah nods, still coloring as Kelly looks down at her.  “Where did he hurt you?”  Sarah puts down her crayon and points to her wrist.  “Anywhere else?”  She nods and points to her neck, “Did he hurt you anywhere below your neck?”  

“My tummy.”  The therapist gets up and goes over to a bookshelf, grabbing a doll from it.  “Do you like playing with baby dolls, Sarah?”  She shrugs taking it from the woman.  “Can you point to all the other places your daddy’s friend hurt you on the doll?”  

Sarah points to the doll’s waist and pelvic area.  “What did he do there?”  Kelly continues questioning her, Sarah puts the doll down and gets off the floor, standing up.  

“I want Mike.”  Kelly gets up and walks over to Sarah, kneeling down in front of her.  Sarah backs away a bit.  “Mike will be back in a minute, how about you sit on the couch and relax, okay?”  Sarah screams and runs to the door, “I want Mike!” 

“Sarah, you’re okay, I’m not going to hurt you.”  Sarah starts pounding on the door, “I want Mike!”  All of a sudden, the door to Kelly’s office opens, John standing in the doorway, Sarah continues crying and he picks her up.  

“Hey, hey, what’s wrong sweetie?”  She buries herself into his chest and continues crying.  “You can take her to Mike’s office, I think we are done for today.”  Kelly says, sweetly.  

“Let’s go see Mike, okay?”  Sarah nods into his shoulder and they head over to Mike’s office.  

 

John opens Mike’s office door, and Mike looks up seeing Sarah in his arms, shaking a bit.  “Hey, someone needs to see you.”  Mike gets up from his desk and rubs Sarah’s back, letting her know it’s him.  “Hey baby, what’s wrong?”  She turns around and jumps into Mike’s arms.  

She starts crying again and Mike walks her over to his desk, sitting in his chair with her.  “Hey hey, what’s wrong princess?”  She sits up in his lap and looks at him.  She puts her hand on his face, playing with his stubble.  

“I don’t like that lady.”  She says, plainly.  “Why not?”  Mike asks, not sure what happened in that room.  

“She kept asking me questions about my daddy’s friend, and I didn’t like it.”  Mike looks up at John, who’s still standing at the door.  “Can you give us some time, John? I need to talk with her alone, please.”  John leaves and Mike looks back at Sarah.  

“You know that I would never put you in a position that would hurt you or make you uncomfortable on purpose, right?”  She nods, turning around so she’s leaning her back against his chest.  

“So when I sent you to Miss Kelly, I wanted you to talk to her about your old home, so that we can know who to catch and what health problems you might have later on.”  Sarah fidgets in his lap as he kisses the top of her head.  

“Do I have to go to Miss Renee today? Can I stay in here with you?”  Mike sits up and opens up his laptop.  “That’s fine, I’ll call her, do you wanna see Jill, or stay in here?”  He picks up the phone and calls Renee’s office.  “I’ll stay in here.”  

 

“Sarah, Miss Renee is gonna come in here today, I’ll be working while you do your schoolwork, okay?”  She nods, coloring on the piece of paper Mike had given her.  

Just as Mike says that, Renee walks into his office.  “Hello there, Miss Sarah, how are you today?”  Sarah jumps up and runs over to Renee, hugging her.  “I’m good, can we read first?”  

“Actually, I want to help you with writing, because the only thing you know how to write or spell is your name, so we are going to fix that.”  She takes Sarah’s hand and leads her over to the empty floor space in Mike’s office.  

 

“Alright princess, say goodbye to Miss Renee, it’s time to go home.”  Mike says closing up his laptop and putting his things into his briefcase.  “Mike, I wrote my whole name!”  She holds up a piece of paper in front of her.  “Oh wow! Let me see, sweetheart.”  He walks over and sets his briefcase on the couch, taking the paper from her.  

“Sarah Elizabeth Warren.  That looks amazing sweetheart, I’m so proud of you.”  She looks up at him, beaming with happiness.  “Alright, now, say goodbye to Miss Renee, we gotta go, Jill is waiting for us.”  Sarah says her goodbye and grabs Mike’s hand, walking with him and Renee out of the office.  

“Thank you for coming to my office for Sarah today, she just needed to be with me for a bit.”  Mike says, turning to Renee, “No problem, I love teaching her, she’s a smart little girl.”  Mike looks down at Sarah, who’s clinging to his leg.  “She absolutely is.  Well, we will see you tomorrow.”  They head out to the stairs to find Jill in her office.  

 

“You ready to go, Jill?”  She closes her laptop and looks up at them, moving her head down quickly again.  “Umm, yeah, actually, you take Sarah on home without me.  I’ll catch a cab, I have to go speak with someone really quick.”  

Mike looks over at her, confused, “You okay?”  She nods, putting her laptop in it’s bag, “Yeah, just go on home, stop by the store and get some more ice cream though, we are running low.”  

“Okay, we’ll see you at home, then.”  Mike is still unsure, but heads out anyways.  

 

Around eleven that night, Jill walks through the front door, Mike sits up on the couch, hearing her come in.  “Hey, what kept you so long?”  She hides her face from him, setting her stuff down, “Oh, Director Corney had a debriefing for a new analyst matter.”  He gets up off the couch and walks over to her, wrapping his arms around her waist.  

“You alright baby?”  She nods, still not looking at him.  He grabs her chin and angles her face to look at him, noticing the bruise on the top of her cheek.  “What the hell is that?”  Mike whispers, loudly.  

“Nothing, don’t worry about it, okay?  I’m gonna go check on Sarah, and then go to bed.”  He lets her go to Sarah’s room, walking behind her, peeking into the bedroom, where Jill is sitting at the edge of Sarah’s bed.  

“Jill, you didn’t tuck me in.”  Sarah says, sleepily.  “I’m sorry, I had work to do, but you need to go back to sleep, okay?”  She nods and closes her eyes as Jill tucks her in again.  The scene before him, makes Mike crack a smile, not knowing what he would do without the two most important girls in his life.


	8. Chapter 8

After a few weeks of a normal routine, which took some getting used to for Sarah, one night, Mike and Jill decided to take her with them to a party at the office.  They knew there would be other kids there, and Sarah needs some social interaction with other children her age.  

 

“Mike, can I have some juice?”  Sarah asks, tugging on the leg of his dress pants.  He leans down next to her, “Give me a minute, I need to finish this conversation, then I’ll get you something to drink.”  She crosses her arms over her chest once he goes back to his conversation.  

After about a minute, Sarah gets extremely impatient and tugs on his pant leg again.  “Mike, I’m thirsty.”  He pauses his conversation and looks down at Sarah, “Sweetheart, I’m busy right now, go ask Jill to help you, or John, he’s around here somewhere.”  He goes back to his conversation and Sarah runs off to find Jill.  

“Hey Sarah, who are you looking for?”  John asks, crouching down, “I’m thirsty and Mike said to find you or Jill to get me some juice.”  He scoops her up in his arms and walks her to the refreshments.  “What kind of juice do you want, sweetheart?”  She looks at the table and at the man serving food and drinks, he looks familiar, but she just can’t put her finger on it, after a second, it hits her and she buries her head into John’s neck.  “I’m not thirsty anymore.”  

“You sure? They’ve got apple juice, you love apple juice.”  She shakes her head and tightens her grip on his shoulders, letting him know she’s done.  “What’s wrong sweetie?”  

“That man, he was daddy’s friend, the one that hurt me.”  John holds onto her tight, “Alright, give me a second, where’s Mike?”  She points over in the direction where Mike is still talking to the same group of guys.  John stops another agent, telling him not to lose sight of the guy at the refreshment table.  

They walk over to Mike and John gets his attention, “What’s wrong?”  Mike looks at Sarah, who is close to tears.  “Sweetheart, come here, what happened?”  He takes her out of John’s arms, holding her close.  “The guy at the refreshment table, is the one who hurt her.  I took her over there to get a drink and she froze up, she told me she wasn’t thirsty anymore and then told me that it was him.”  

Mike’s entire demeanor shifts, he looks around, searching for Jill and once he catches sight of her, carries Sarah to her, handing her off.  “Hold onto her, take her to my office.”  Jill watches what he’s doing and notices the man he’s headed towards, it’s the same guy from a few weeks ago, she never fully told Mike or anyone what really happened that day, so she has no idea what he’s going for.  

“Come on baby, Mike and John are gonna go do something.  Let’s go play in Mike’s office.”  She walks to Mike’s office and hurries inside, setting Sarah down on the couch.  “Alright, you wanna color?”  Sarah nods, still a little uneasy as Jill grabs the coloring books and crayons.  “Here you go, baby.  I’m gonna make a call real quick, okay?”  She nods and Jill goes to the desk to call Renee.  

 

“You son of a bitch!”  Mike screams, punching the guy in the face.  “Mike! Stand down, now!”  Mike backs up and John zip cuffs the guy.  “I swear to god, you will go to prison for the rest of your life, asshole.”  Mike says, getting in his face.  He spits at Mike, and he just wipes it off his face.  “I can’t wait to hear what happens to you when the other inmates find out you molested a child.”  

“Ohh, so you’re that little brat’s new guardian, huh? Well, your little girlfriend was a real fun time, I’ll tell you that.”  Mike looks at him, confused.  “What the hell are you talking about?”  He almost screams it, “I’m talking about a few weeks ago when I saw your girlfriend at a bar on her lunch break, she sure can scream real loud, I’ll tell you that.  But, you probably already knew.”  Mike’s hand balls back up into a fist, “Mike, go.”  John says, he doesn’t budge.  “Mike, do what John says!”  He looks over and sees Director Corney, watching them.  “Yes sir.”  Mike rushes off to his office, considering he’s got a million questions for Jill. 

 

“Tell me that you didn’t cheat on me, tell me that you didn’t have sex with that guy at some bar on your lunch break.  Tell me it isn’t true!”  Mike yells, bursting through the door.  Sarah looks up at Jill and Mike, but Renee is holding her close so she won’t be too afraid.  “Mike, we need to talk outside.”  

“No, we need to talk now.  Tell me what happened a few weeks ago, the day you came home with that bruise on your face.”  She places a hand on Mike’s chest, protecting herself from whatever anger Mike is feeling, he doesn’t react.  His whole body is stiff, he’s frozen in place.  “He saw me at the bar with Julie, asked me if I was single and I said no.  He left me alone for a bit, and when I went to use the restroom, he grabbed me and pulled me into the bathroom.  He hit me and then raped me.  Are you happy?”  She runs out of Mike’s office in tears.

“Mike, why are you yelling?”  He hears a little voice say, his entire body melts.  “Oh, I’m sorry monkey, I’m just a little tense.  I’ll be right back, okay?”  He runs out of his office, looking for Jill, who he finds in a heap on the floor, crying.  He sits down and pulls her into his chest, causing her to flinch.  “Baby, I’m so sorry.  I had no idea, it’s just when he said what he said to me, I didn’t know what to believe, or what to think.”  She nestles into him, letting him hold her.  “I should’ve told you.  I shouldn’t have been so stupid.  I’m sorry, Mike.”  

“Jill, do not apologize, this isn’t your fault at all.  He’s a shitty person.  He is the man that molested Sarah, I just can't believe he hurt you, he's not leaving that prison for the rest of his life.”  Jill sits up.  “Wait, what about Sarah?”  He rubs her back, soothingly.  “Yeah, I thought John told you.”  She shakes her head, unable to fully process what Mike told her.  

“We should probably go home, Sarah is exhausted and so am I.”  Mike nods, unsure of why she changed the subject like that, he helps her up and they grab Sarah from his office, thanking Renee for her help, before heading out of the office building to go home.  

 

“I’ll take her to her room, you go on and get ready for bed.”  Mike whispers to Jill, as he carries a sleeping Sarah into the apartment.  She nods and Mike takes Sarah into her room, carefully getting her ready for bed without waking her.  

Mike stands at the dresser, looking for some pajamas for Sarah to wear, when he feels something latch onto his leg.  He looks down and sees Sarah holding onto him.  “Hey, what is it?  I laid you in bed so you wouldn’t be cold while I got your clothes.”  She’s frozen, can’t even respond to him.  “Sarah, you okay?”  He can feel her shaking, so he picks her up and holds her tight.  “Jill, I need some help in here!”  He lays her back down in bed, as Sarah starts screaming.  “Hey, hey, hey, you’re okay, it’s just me.”  Mike whispers to her, laying himself on the bed, laying his head next to hers.  

Jill walks in, noticing what’s going on, she sits next to Sarah on the bed, who Mike is trying to hold still.  “Sarah, baby, you’re okay.  Just breathe, okay?”  Jill starts over exaggerating her breathing to get Sarah to take deep breaths.  Mike runs his hand up and down her abdomen, trying to relax her.  

As Sarah starts to calm down, Mike pulls her into his chest, cuddling her.  “You’re okay, I’m here.”  She’s still shaking, but that’s just because her body is exhausted.  “Mike, I’m gonna go shower, let her sleep in our bed tonight.”  Sarah turns around into Mike’s grasp.  “Mike, I don’t wanna sleep in here.”  He gets up, holding her in his arms, she’s still not dressed, but doesn’t seem to mind, considering how warm she is.  “Okay, you can sleep with us tonight.” 


	9. Chapter 9

“I’m not giving up my rights as her legal guardian, James!”  Mike yells, banging his fist on Director Comey’s desk.  “Mike, I’m not asking you to completely give her up.  I’m asking you to give up partial custody.”  

“To whom?”  He asks, sitting down in the chair across from his desk.  “There’s a family up for taking her during the week, you’d be able to have her on weekends.  She’s not in a stable environment, she needs to be around kids her age, Mike.  She needs to go to a real school.”  

“Then I will find her a school, she’s my daughter now, I’m legally her guardian, so is Jill.  That is final.”  He gets up, stomping to the door, about to open it when Director Comey speaks up.  “Mike, think about the best interest of Sarah, I know how much you love her, but please, think of her.”  

He opens the door, storming out, to Jill’s office.  He opens her office door, walking in and slamming it behind him, “Hey, what happened? Why are you slamming doors?”  

“James.”  He plops himself down on her couch, as she gets up from her desk, walking over to him.  “What’d he do?”  

“He asked me to give her to a foster family.”  He chokes out, as she rubs his back, “Baby, I know that legally, she is ours now, but maybe he’s right.  We are in way over our heads here.”  Mike sits upright, “Are you fucking serious right now?  She’s ours, she’s our daughter now.  She isn’t going anywhere.”  He gets up off the couch, pushing her out of his way.  

“Mike, stop it! Listen to me!”  He turns around, his face, slowly turning red in anger, “What? What, Jill? What could you possibly say to justify getting rid of her? She’s the greatest thing to come into my life since I met you, the two of you are all I have!”  

She puts her hand out, reaching out to him, placing her hand on his chest.  “Stop, just relax, okay? Hear me out.”  He lets out a deep sigh, relaxing in her touch.  “Think about Sarah, think about her wellbeing, okay? I know that that’s all you ever think of, but just, at the very least, meet the family.  Then decide.  I wanna keep her just as bad as you do.  She is the most amazing little girl on the planet, but we both have insane jobs, and I don’t want her getting hurt again.”  She pulls him into her, running her hand down his back as he takes deep breaths, trying not to cry.  “I can’t lose her, Jill.  I won’t.”

 

“Mikey!!”  Sarah yells, jumping into his arms when he goes to pick her up from Renee’s office.  “Sarah, come get your math and reading papers from today, so that Mike can see how smart you are.”  Mike gasps, looking at Sarah, “How’d you do today, bug?”  

“I got check marks and smiley faces on all my papers!”  His jaw drops, as he sets her down on the floor.  “Go get them, I wanna see!”  She runs over to Renee, who has her backpack and papers in hand, they walk back over to Mike, and he picks Sarah up again, taking her papers.  “Oh wow, monkey! You did so great!  I’m so proud of you!”  

Renee smiles at the exchange between him and Sarah.  “She’s doing really well, Mike.  Seriously, she’s adjusting so well and she’s already decided she wants to be an FBI agent when she grows up.”  

“Yeah, she’s mentioned that a few times, but I don’t know how I feel about her being in danger.  I love her too much.  Don’t I, bug?”  She nods, snuggling into him.  “Let’s go home so you can take a nap, baby.”  They say goodbye to Renee and head home with Jill.  

 

“Hey monkey, Jill and I have a dinner tonight, so Ms. Renee is going to come watch you, is that alright?”  She nods, eating her mac and cheese that Jill made for her.  “Mike, since you’re my daddy now, can I call you daddy?”  Mike looks at Jill, tears threatening to spill over.  “Sarah, baby, you can call me and Mike whatever you want.  Do you see Mike as your dad?”  She nods again, not really sure why they’re being weird.  “Then yes, of course you can call me that.”  Mike says, walking over to her, “How about you go get some books from your room for you and Ms. Renee to read together, she’ll be here soon.”  

 

“Mike, Jill, this is Angela and Todd Marshall.  They’re very active foster parents, they've got a little boy and a little girl that they've been fostering for five years.” They shake hands and Mike wraps an arm around Jill’s waist, she can't tell if it's for his comfort or if he's just not sure about these people. 

“We were told that you guys might be unable to take care of the little girl that you found.” Angela says, very bluntly. 

“No. We are perfectly capable of taking care of her. James, here, seems to think that we aren't.”  James looks at Mike, raising an eyebrow. 

“Mike, that's not what I said, at all.” Jill runs her hand across Mike’s lower back, relaxing him. “Shall we sit and talk?” She suggest, they all sit down at a table near the back of the restaurant. 

 

“We think Sarah would do really well in our home. We've got a dog, and some fish, we also live near a playground so that could be fun for her. Really help her get to know some other kids. Oh! And the school our kids go to is amazing, top of the line education.” Angela says, Mike looks to Jill, who looks intrigued by what she's saying.  “Jill, I'm gonna go call Renee, make sure everything is alright.”  He says, starting to get up out of his seat. “Babe, I'm sure she's fine. She would call otherwise.” He sits back down, running his hand up and down Jill’s thigh. 

“Mike, I know how hard this must be for you. She's become your little girl, and we aren't trying to be insensitive towards that. We just want what is best for her, just like you do.”  He looks at Todd, with slight disgust evident in his face. 

“I don't really understand how I'm supposed to let a little girl, who told me just an hour ago that she considers me her dad. I'm not giving her up.”  Jill looks up at him, grabbing his hand. “Mike, give them a chance.”  

“It's okay, if he can't do it, we don't wanna take her away.”  Mike takes his hand down his face, exhausted. “Can I at least talk to her about it? See if she would even wanna go?” James looks at him, shaking his head. “Mike, she isn't gonna want to leave you, but if she ends up healthier and happier, it's necessary for her.”  Mike stands up, banging his fist on the table.

“Fine. For the love of god, James. Anyway you spin it, I look like a bad guy. Take her away from me, if that's what you're gonna do anyways, just do it.” He walks away from the table, leaving Jill and the rest of the table uneasy. 

“I guess he's ready to leave, James, we can talk in my office tomorrow about arrangements. Just please, as much as I love her, I'm willing to let go, but Mike isn't. Please just, go easy on him.”  James nods, as she gets up from the table, chasing after Mike.  

 

“Mike, I know it hurts, but you have to let go.  They’ll let her come stay with us on the weekends.  She’d come to the apartment every Friday and won’t have to leave until Sunday night.  She won’t agree to it at first, but she’ll be so much better off with them.”  He glares at her, opening the driver’s door and getting in, slamming it shut.  Jill gets in on the passenger’s side, awaiting the silent treatment that was to come.  

When they get back to the apartment, Mike runs inside, where he was hoping Sarah was still awake.  When he opens the door, Sarah runs to him, wanting him to pick her up.  “Hey monkey, you all ready for bed?”  She nods, putting her head on his shoulder.  “Can I sleep in your room tonight? My room is really cold.”  He presses a kiss to her forehead, carrying her to his room.  

 

“Mike!”  He turns around, before leaving the room.  “Yeah, baby? What is it?”  

“Will you stay here with me? Until I fall asleep?”  He walks over to the bed, kneeling down next to it.  “Why? What’s wrong?”  She takes his hand in her far tinier one, squeezing his fingers.  He hears Jill and Renee talking in the living room about the foster family.  “I had a bad dream last night, I dreamt that my dad came and took me away from you.”  

“Hey, why would you have a dream like that? I’m gonna make sure that your daddy can’t hurt you ever again, okay?”  He gets up off the floor, climbing into the bed, pulling her in his lap.  “Now get some sleep, baby, we’ve got a big day tomorrow.”  She closes her eyes, drifting off to sleep as Mike rocks her back and forth.


	10. Chapter 10

“Mike, you got a letter in the mail from a law firm.”  Jill hands it to him as she sifts through the rest of their mail, handing Sarah her magazine.  “What the hell?  They filed a lawsuit against me.”  Jill looks up, “Mike, language.”  She points at Sarah.  “Sorry, look.”  He hands her the letter, that clearly states that he has to plea his case to keep Sarah in his custody.  

“Oh my god, the FBI is way out of line here.”  She says, Sarah looks up at them, “Mike, what happened? Are you in trouble?”  

He kneels down next to her at the kitchen table, “Kind of,” he looks up at Jill, before looking back at Sarah.  “Sarah, baby, me and Jill need to talk to you.  Will you go sit on the couch and wait for us?”  She gets up, and walks into the living room, throwing herself onto the couch.  

 

“I’m not going!”  Sarah yells, throwing a pillow at Mike, “Stop, baby, please stop.”  He gets up off the coffee table and sits next to her, pulling her close.  “Why would you give me away? Do you not love me anymore?”  Jill sees a tear escape Mike’s eye.  “Please don’t say that, monkey.  Please.”  

Jill decides it’s probably a good time for her to speak up, “Sarah, we aren’t doing this because we want to get rid of you.  We both love you so so much, that we want you to be in a house that is a lot better for you.”  Sarah squeezes onto Mike, “I don’t want a better house, this is the best house.  I wanna stay with you and Mike.”  He holds onto her tight, knowing she is feeling the same pain that he is.  

“We are going to go to court, and then you have to see a therapist again to talk to her.  And under no circumstances are you to lie, got it Sarah?”  Jill says, she knows Sarah can manipulate people into believing what she wants them to, if there was even a chance that lying could get her to stay with Jill and Mike, she’d do it.  

 

“Mike Warren, you took Sarah into your custody for what reason?”  He sits up in the chair, leaning forward a bit.  “To give her a loving, and stable household.  To make sure that no harm ever comes her way again.”  

“Is it true that the only person in your household steadily bringing in any money is Jill, your girlfriend, because you’re not on cases at the moment?  Do the two of you share a bank account?”  

“Yes, Jill is bringing in most of the income and no, but we’ve been talking about doing so for Sarah’s sake.”  The lawyer nods his head.  “Is it also true that since being in your custody, Sarah has undergone a stab injury?”  Mike rakes a hand down his face.  

“Yes, her biological father found my address and broke into her room.  The medics were called as soon as I found out he broke in, before I realized what he had even done.  I fought him off myself, and Jill took care of Sarah until the ambulance arrived.”

“And I’m sure you have her in some sort of schooling, yes?”  Mike nods, “There’s someone in the FBI who homeschools her from the offices, so that we can keep an eye on her, make sure nothing happens to her.”  

“Does Sarah have any friends her age?”  Mike shakes his head, looking down at his hands.  “No, she gets uncomfortable around other children, we enrolled her in a public school at first, then discovered that she was too anxious.”  

“Too anxious?  Around other children?”  

“Yes, she doesn’t do well in crowds, or with people touching her.  She gets uncomfortable very easily.”  

“So, you haven’t been so much as trying to get her out in society? Planning playdates and such?”  Mike shakes his head.  

“So you have been isolating her the same way she was isolated before, you haven’t even begun to help her move forward from her past life at all.”  Mike stands up, slamming his fists down on the stand.  “I have done everything for that little girl since she came into my life! She has been given love, and nothing but love since coming into my life.  I love her more than anything, don’t you dare suggest otherwise!”  The judge bangs his gavel, “That is enough, Mr. Warren sit down!”  

He does as the judge says, looking at Jill, whose head is in her hands, “Mr. Warren, I have one more question for you.”  

“What?”  

“Mike, do you see yourself fit to be a parent? Especially to a child who needs as much attention as Sarah?”  

Mike lets out a sigh, “I don’t know how to answer that question, considering who is really to say that I would be a bad parent simply because I am homeschooling her, or because my job is a little unstable right now?  All I know, is that I love that little girl more than I can even express.  And if you ever try to put down the amount of love I have for her, I swear to god…” 

“Mr. Warren, enough!”  He sits back as the lawyer goes back to his table.  “Mr. Warren, you may go back to your lawyer.”  He gets up from the stand, angrily walking back to his attorney.  “Alright, we will have a brief recess while I decide on the verdict.”  

 

“Hi, baby.  How was the therapist with Renee?”  Sarah wraps her arms around his neck.  “Mike, why do they want to take me away from you?”  

“Because they don’t know how much you love staying with me and Jill.”  She grabs his face, rubbing the stubble forming on his neck and chin.  “I don’t wanna leave you, Mike.”  

“I don’t want you to leave either baby.” 

 

“I have decided that in the best interest of Sarah, she goes to stay with the foster family during the week, with visits to Mike and Jill’s apartment every Friday-Sunday.”  Mike falls into his chair as Jill runs around, wrapping her arms around him.  “I wanna see her.  Please let me see her.”  Jill goes over to Renee, getting Sarah.  

She sits on Mike’s lap, laying her head on his chest as he squeezes her tightly.  “I’m so sorry monkey.  I’m so so sorry.”  Angela and Todd come up to him, Angela placing her hand on Sarah’s back.  “Please, not yet.”  They’re lawyer comes up to him.  “Mike, it’s time for her to go with Angela and Todd.  Come on.”  

“No! I’m not leaving Mike!”  She holds onto him with everything she has.  “Come on Sarah, it’ll be okay.”  Angela tries speaking to her, sweetly, while Todd picks her up.  She starts up a blood curdling scream.  “Mike! Help me!”  Mike stands up, reaching for her.  “Mike, back away please.”  Jill holds onto his waist, “Baby, we have to let her go.”  He turns around, as Jill pulls him into her, comforting him as he tries not to cry.


	11. Chapter 11

“You want any dinner, Mike? I can order some food.”  He shakes his head, flipping through the channels.  “Does she have her elephant?”  He asks Jill, as she walks into the living room.  “They haven’t gotten her stuff yet, so no.”  

“How has she been able to sleep without her elephant?  It’s been almost four days.  I should take it to her.”  Jill walks over to him, sitting down on his lap.  “Mike, I know how much you are hurting right now.  Trust me, I do.  I can take the elephant over there tomorrow while you are working on getting a new case.”  

“I don’t want to get a new case.  I want Sarah to be here with us.”  Jill leans down, placing a kiss on his lips, tenderly.  “It’s been a while, why don’t we let off some steam.”  He picks her up, carrying her to the bedroom, feverishly kissing her the whole way.  

 

Mike gets up from the bed, careful not to wake Jill, and walks into Sarah’s room.  He sits on the bed, looking around at her toys, still scattered everywhere.  He hasn’t allowed himself to really act on his emotions, aside from his evening with Jill.  

He squeezes the elephant in his hands, letting himself really cry.  “Mike? You okay?”  He looks up at Jill, eyes puffy and red, “Baby, oh my god.”  She sits on the bed next to him, pulling his head to her lap.  “Why did they take her away from me?”  

Jill sucks in a breath, trying not to cry for his sake.  “I don’t know, honey, I wish I did.”  

 

Jill walks up to the door of a house that really doesn’t look like a house the FBI would choose for a little girl to grow up in.  She knocks on the door, before hearing a loud thud, and a cry.  She thought for a second, she knew that cry.  She pounds on the door even harder, before Angela is standing before her.    

“Oh! Jill, hello.  Umm, what are you doing here?”  

“Is this where you live? With your foster children?”  Angela looks at her, confused for a second.  “Oh, umm, yeah, what are you doing here?”

“Well, Sarah can't sleep without her elephant, so Mike thought I should bring it to her.”  Angela takes it from her, “Thanks, umm is that all? Because we have to get her ready for school.” 

“She's not at school? It's noon.” Angela turns and sees Sarah behind her. “Jill! Take me home!” She runs to Jill, into her arms. 

“I can't baby, the court said I can't.”  Sarah starts crying, writhing in Jill’s arms as Angela tries prying her away. “Make it stop, Jill! Please take me home!” 

 

“Mike, call James. Sarah needs to get out of their house.” Mike stands up from his desk, “Why? What happened? Is she okay?” 

Jill shakes her head, “Just get him on the fucking phone, Mike.”  He grabs the phone off his desk, calling James’s office.  

 

“They are beating her, James! Get her out of there!”  Jill yells, as Mike pulls her to him, trying to calm her down. “I can't, Jill. You know that.”  

“Today is Thursday, right?  We are picking her up tomorrow off the bus, so why don’t we check her out then, have some backup, just in case?”  Mike suggests, rubbing circles on Jill’s side.  “Mike, she needs out, now.”  He pulls her around, looking down at her.  

“Baby, trust me.  I know, better than anyone about the situation.  But at this moment, you have zero evidence.  We can’t go in there without any evidence.”  He pulls her into his chest, rubbing her back.  “Mike, she needs to come home.”  Mike looks at James, needing him to say something, anything.  

“How about, I have Mike and a team stake out the house tonight?”  Jill nods, pulling away from Mike, “Put me in the team.  I wanna run tech on this.”  

“No, absolutely not.  You’re too hot, Jill.  You’re inclined to be reckless, go home and get some rest.  Leave it to Mike and his team.”  Jill storms out of Mike’s office, down to hers to try and get some work done.  

“James, at least let her sit in the van with us.”  Mike tries negotiating, sitting back at his desk.  “Mike, I can’t and you know why I can’t.”  

“Fine, get me a team, John has to be on it.  I trust him and Sarah loves him.”  James walks out of Mike’s office, headed toward John’s office to get the team together.  

 

“Alright, I’ve got eyes on the house, is Agent Christian in position?”  Mike asks into a walkie.  “Yep, he’s ready, take-down is ‘Pleasure doing business with you’.”  Mike chuckles at the take-down phrase, considering it was his first one and now it’s Christian’s first one.  

“Alright, send him in.  Let’s bring Sarah home.”  James stands behind Mike and John, shaking his head.  “When did we decide to send in an undercover?  That was never the plan.”  Mike looks back at him, “That was never your plan, my plan is different.  You told me to run a stake out, you didn’t say I couldn’t send in a U.C.”  

“Fair enough, let’s get her out of there.”  

 

“You know, we have more girls in the bedroom, if you wanna take a look.”  Mike looks over at John, “Wait, I thought this was about drugs.  What the hell is going on?”  James pulls his phone out to make a call, leaving Mike and John confused.  “Come on Christian, get some intel.”  

“How much are they?”  Christian asks, following Todd to the bedroom.  “Depends on what age you want.”  He opens the door, revealing Sarah and four other girls, all different ages, mostly minors.  “How much for the little one?”  Mike slams his fist on the table, “Shit, he can’t take her, she’ll be too scared.  I don’t want her to be even more traumatized.”  

“He’s flying by the seat of his pants, Warren, we can’t tell him to do otherwise.”  Mike stands up, throwing the papers off the table, “Goddamnit!”  

 

Mike decided it would be best to bust in on a different take-down, because he didn’t want Sarah to be insanely scarred by the FBI.  “FBI, put your hands in the air!”  John and Mike burst through the doors, guns in the air, vests on their upper bodies.  

“You set me up? What the hell man?”  Christian says, being pushed against the wall by John.  Mike grabs Todd, pushing him to one of his team members, “Where is she? Where are the girls?”  Mike yells, before punching him in the gut.  “They’re in the back, Jesus Christ.”  

Mike runs to the bedroom, handing his gun off to John.  He opens the door, revealing five girls, including Sarah.  They’re all terrified, wearing hardly anything, Sarah locks eyes with Mike.  “Mike!”  He runs over, picking her up gently, pulling her to his chest.  “I’ve got you baby, you’re coming home.”  

He turns to the other girls, “You’re all gonna be okay, there’s a medical team on the way to help you all.  Just don’t move, I’ll make sure you’re all gonna be okay.”  Sarah buries her head in Mike’s shoulder.  “Mike, I wanna go home.”  He rocks her back and forth, waiting for John to come in the room.  “We’ll go home soon, we have to wait just a minute, okay?”  

 

“Sarah, baby oh my god.”  John walks up to Mike, taking Sarah out of his arms.  “John, I wanna go home!”  She squeezes his neck, as he walks her to an EMT with Mike.  “The other girls need help, too.”  He says to the rest of the med team.  

“Sarah, baby, they need to take a look at you, okay?”  Mike says sweetly as John puts her on the gurney.  “Mike, I wanna go home!”  He puts a hand on her arm, “You’re okay, I’m right here.”  She squeezes his arm as a medic lifts up her shirt, to examine her.  “No!”  Mike moves the medic’s hand away.  “Don’t touch her.”  He moves to lift the hem of her shirt up as she allows him to.  “Angel, what happened right here?”  He points at a giant bruise on her rib area.  “The man stepped on me, he was trying to hurt Emily, so I jumped in front of her, and he pushed me down, and then stepped on me.”

Mike brushes her hair off of her face, “You’re the bravest little girl I’ve ever met.  The medic needs to check your bruises and things, though, okay?”  She nods, grabbing onto his hand with all of her might.  “I’m right here, that man can’t get to you anymore, I promise.”  He kisses the top of her hand.  “Mike, where’s Jill?”  

“She’s waiting for us at the office, we can see her after they give the okay.”  All of a sudden, Sarah lets out a blood curdling scream.  “What the hell did you do to her?”  Mike yells, holding Sarah as close as he can.  “I’m sorry, I just was checking her back and there’s a giant bone bruise on her spine.”  Mike looks down at Sarah, kissing her tears away.  “It’s alright pumpkin, we’ll get it taken care of.”  

He looks up at the medics, “Is there anything you can give her for pain?  She needs to be at home.”  The woman who was checking the other girls looks at him shaking her head.  “We need to take her to the hospital.  Mike, she’s got a burn over a bone bruise on her back, that doesn’t heal easily.”  

 

“Mike, where is she? Is she alright?”  Jill runs into his arms, “She’s fine, they’re wrapping her up right now.  She had second degree burns on her back and a gigantic bone bruise underneath of that.”  Jill shakes her head, fighting the tears forming in her eyes.  

“Mike, Jill, you can come see her now.  She’s still asleep from the sedative, but you can come sit with her.”  They rush into the room to see Sarah lying on her stomach, with oxygen cannulas in her nose.  “How long does she have to be here?”  Jill asks, looking up at the doctor.  “At least for tonight, there will be nurses in and out of here all night checking on her.”  Mike sits down in the chair next to the bed, rubbing the top of Sarah’s knuckles with his thumb.  “Jill, are you staying with her or am I?”  Jill thanks the doctor and walks over to the bed, “I can’t I’ve got early meetings and have to get back to the office in an hour.  So you should probably stay.  I can be back here around 10 tomorrow morning though.”  She leans down, kissing him, before leaning over the bed and placing a kiss on Sarah’s head.  

 

“Sarah, baby wake up.”  Mike gently nudges her amidst her tossing and turning, as her eyes open.  “Mike? Where am I?”  She tries getting up, but Mike tells her to lie back down.  “You’re at the hospital, sweetheart.  They want you to stay here at least for the night.  I’ll be here with you, though, okay?  Jill is gonna be here in the morning.”  

“I’m hungry, Mike.  Can I have chocolate ice cream?”  He chuckles, shaking his head.  “You can have a real dinner first, and then I’ll see about some ice cream for you.”  She smiles up at him, “Can you get me some grilled cheese then?”  

“Absolutely, I will be right back, get some rest, okay?  John is right outside the door if you need him.”  He leans down, kissing her on the cheek, before heading out to get her food.  “Mike, how is she?”  John asks, stopping him, “She’s hungry, so I’m gonna go get her grilled cheese from her favorite place.”  

“Can I see her?”  Mike nods, “Yeah, of course, she would love that.”  John pats him on the back, as Mike leaves to get Sarah’s food.  


	12. Chapter 12

“Holy shit, Mike! Yes!”  Jill screams as Mike thrusts in and out of her, “Don’t stop!”  His head falls to the crook of her neck, kissing her collarbone, hungrily.  “Fuck, baby you feel so good.”  As he quickens his pace, Jill falls apart under him, causing Mike to come undone as well, falling to the side of her.  

“Thank god for John.”  Mike looks at Jill, offended, “I  _ know  _ for a fact that John had nothing to do with that, babe.”  

“That would not have happened if he hadn’t agreed to take Sarah to that play with his wife.”  She nuzzles into Mike’s side, kissing his chest.  “I guess that’s true, but still, you’re not gonna thank me?”  

She sits up, kissing him softly, “Thank you for tonight, it’s been nice getting back to us.”  He squeezes her tighter into his side, reaching over with his other arm to get his phone and check the time.  “They’ll be back any minute, wanna shower first?”  Jill nods, getting out of the bed, as Mike gets up, throwing on some sweats.  

 

“Mike!”  Sarah yells jumping into Mike’s arms, “Hi, munchkin! How was the play?”  He asks her as she wiggles around in his arms, “It was amazing! John let me get chocolate cake after at this restaurant, and it was so so yummy!”  Mike looks up at John, “So you got her sugared up, then brought her home?”  

John nods, laughing, as his wife comes through the front door.  “Hey, Mike.  How are you doing?”  

“I’m great Ashley, how have you been?”  

“Pretty good, Sarah is a great kid, you’re doing a great job with her.  You and Jill both.”  Sarah whips her head around from Ashley to Mike, “Where’s Jill?”  

“She’s taking a shower, she’ll be out in a minute.”  He kisses her on the temple, before setting her down, so she can run into the kitchen.  “What are you doing, Sarah?”  

“I want cookies!”  Mike runs into the kitchen after her, “No cookies, it’s bath time.”  John and Ashley follow them, “Hey, Mike, we are gonna head out.  I’ll see you in the office on Monday? I’ve got a case I want you to look into.”  Mike nods, getting Sarah her cup for juice.  “Yeah, sounds good.”  They head out and Mike gets Sarah upstairs to her room to take a bath.  

 

“Mike, guess what we are doing at school today?”  Sarah says, bouncing up and down in her seat in the back of the car.  “What baby?”  

“We are having Relay Day and a bunch of the kids’ parents is coming to help out!”  Mike looks back at her through the rearview, “You didn’t tell me that! I would’ve taken off work to help out angel.”  She shrugs her shoulders and stares out the window as they pull into the school parking lot.  “I’m gonna walk you in today, okay? I need to talk to your teacher for a second.”  He parks the car and helps Sarah out, carrying her backpack for her.

 

“Mr. Warren, hello.  What brings you in today?”  He watches Sarah run over to her cubby to put her backpack and lunchbox away.  “I was wondering why we never hear about these big days here at the school? Sarah keeps mentioning them after they happen, or the day of.”  

“Well, I am aware of your schedule and your job, and I don’t send anything home with her because I don’t want her to get her hopes up, just to have you have to back out of coming last minute.”  That hurts Mike.  

“I don’t understand why you are taking it into your own hands what I’m capable of?”  Sarah looks over at Mike, noticing his anger.  “Mike, why are you upset?”  She asks him, quiet enough not to get attention, but loud enough for him to hear.  “I’m fine, baby.  It looks like I’ll be helping out with your class today for the Relay Day.”  He looks at her teacher, the snarkiest grin on his face.  

“But John needed your help, remember?”  Sarah asks, running over to him.  “It’ll be alright, I’ll go call him now and he can come over for dinner and I will help him then.”  He steps out of the classroom to call John, before walking back in, sitting next to Sarah.  

 

“Sarah, would you like to introduce us to your special person today?”  She stands up and looks back at Mike, who is smiling at her with so much pride in who she’s become the last two months.  “This is Mike, he’s my daddy.  He and Jill adopted me and so now he’s my dad.  Mike works for the FBI, he arrests bad guys and helps people get justice.”  Mike laughs a little at that, “He is the smartest, nicest man I know, and he also has the coolest job ever.”  She sits back down on his lap as the rest of the class claps for her.  

“Good job, monkey, that was awesome,”  Mike says, kissing her on the cheek.  “Alright everyone, now before our first relay activity of the day, every class in the school has been asked to make a flag for their classroom, to help cheer our team on during the races.  So I’m gonna let each of you come up in groups of 3 to draw anything you want on this flag.  We will do it in our reading groups, so blue group, you guys can come up first.”  

Sarah jumps off of Mike’s lap and runs over to the markers, then over to the flag on the table to draw her picture.  She ends up being the last one at the table, causing Mike to pull out his camera and take a picture to send to Jill.  

When Sarah gets done, she runs back over to Mike, with a huge smile on her face.  “What’d you draw princess?”  

“I drew a picture of me, and you and Jill.”  The teacher calls the next group up to draw their pictures and Mike squeezes Sarah to his chest, “Ugh I love you so much monkey.”  The things this little girl could do to his heart, was a feeling he had never experienced before, but it was something he never wanted to lose again. 


	13. Chapter 13

“Sarah, I need you to clean up, John is coming over for dinner and he always likes it when your room is squeaky clean,” Jill says, handing Sarah her juice while she does her homework at the kitchen table.  “Mommy, do I have to?”  

“Yes, now finish up your homework and then clean, Daddy and John will be here soon.”  Sarah groans finishing up her last math problem before slamming her folder shut and stomping off to her room.  Jill rolls her eyes finishing up cleaning the kitchen.  

 

“Honey, we’re home and we have Chinese!”  Mike announces, walking into the kitchen with John, both of them carrying takeout bags.  “Good, because Sarah has decided that when Daddy isn’t home, she can stomp all over the place and not listen to me, so go take care of your daughter.”  Mike leans in to give Jill a quick kiss before smiling at her.  “I’ll be right back.”  

He walks out of the kitchen to Sarah’s room, “Sarah, Mommy told me that you weren’t being a very good girl while I was at work.”  He sits down on the edge of her bed while she plays with her dolls on the floor.  “I was to!”  

“Uh uh, we don’t talk back in this house, do we?”  She shakes her head, looking down at the floor, “Now tell me why Mommy would’ve said you weren’t being good if you were.”  

“I didn’t wanna clean my room and she said I had to.”  Mike looks around her room, seeing her toys still sprawled out everywhere, “Sarah, your room is still a mess.”  She looks up at him batting her eyelashes, “But daddy, princesses don’t have to clean their rooms.”  Ever since she came back to Mike and Jill, she’s made a habit out of calling Mike ‘Daddy’, which she also knows is the best way to get him to go easy on her.    

“Sarah, princesses have their royal duties which does involve cleaning their rooms, now pick up your room and then come eat dinner, John said he’ll come play with you after we eat, but your room has to be clean.”  She gets up off the floor, starting to pick up her toys, “Good girl, but you do owe Mommy an apology when you come out here, okay?”  She nods, throwing her dolls into her toy chest.  

 

“Sarah, I was wondering if you wanted to go to see my mommy for your Thanksgiving break,” Mike suggests looking up at Jill, “Your mommy?”  She cocks her head, confused, “Yeah, she lives in Virginia, about forty-five minutes from here, she really wants to meet her new granddaughter.”  

“Can I call her grandma?”  Mike nods, picking her up off the couch, placing her in his lap turning on the tv, “Of course you can, she’d love that.”  

“What about your daddy? Do I get to meet him too?”  Mike sucks in a deep breath as Sarah leans back into his chest, “I don’t know baby, maybe.” 

 

“Mom, this is Sarah,” Mike says looking down at Sarah, who’s attached to his leg, smiling up at Mike’s mom, Lisa.  Lisa bends down holding her hand out to Sarah, “Hi sweetie, I’m Lisa.”  Sarah runs into her arms, “Daddy said I can call you grandma,” Sarah explains pulling away from Lisa, “Of course sweetheart, if you want to.”

Sarah looks back up at Mike, smiling, “Daddy, I’m hungry,” he bends down to pick her up, placing her on his hip, “Let’s go get you a snack, you just ate breakfast.”  Lisa leads them to the kitchen, when they get in there Mike notices the shower running upstairs.  

“Mom, is someone else here?”  Lisa turns to look at him, smiling nervously, “Umm, yes, your father is back here,” she turns to Sarah, “what are you hungry for sweetheart?”  Mike turns to look at Jill who is taking a seat at the kitchen table, pulling out her phone to take care of some work stuff.  

“Can I have some fruit?”  Lisa walks over to the fridge to get out some stuff for Sarah, “Is nobody gonna acknowledge that he’s here? Why is he here?”  Mike puts Sarah down so she can sit at the table where Lisa was walking over to cut up some fruit for her.  

“He’s back from rehab, honey, he needed a place to stay and he’s changed.  Give him a chance, he’s your father.”  

“No, he’s a drunk who I don’t want around my little girl,” Mike retaliates, his hands balling up into fists.  “Mike, stop it, not right now,” Jill says, getting up from the table to walk over to him, she wraps her arms around his waist, rubbing the small of his back.  “Let’s take a walk, okay?”  

“Sarah, we will be back in a minute, stay here with grandma,” Jill says, pulling Mike out of the house.  

 

“If he touches Sarah, I will break his hand,” Mike says as they walk back into the house after having discussed his attitude towards his dad.  Jill explained to him that he needed to put on a face that everything was fine for Sarah’s sake, he agreed but only if his dad didn’t have a single sip of alcohol while they were there.  

“Mikey boy get in here and hug your dad!” Mike turns to Jill who smiles at him reassuringly, “Give him a chance, it’ll be okay.”  They head into the kitchen where Sarah is in Lisa’s lap, looking exhausted and Mike’s dad, Scott, is sitting at the table next to them.  

“There’s my boy, oh man I’ve missed you son,” Scott says getting up to hug Mike, “Yeah, hey dad.”  Scott pulls away and sees Jill standing behind Mike, “And who is this pretty little lady you’ve got here?”  Mike grabs Jill, pulling her closer to him protectively, “This is my girlfriend, Jill.”  

Jill extends a hand to shake Scott’s, “It’s nice to meet you, Jill, I’m Scott.”  

“Nice to meet you as well,” Jill says putting on a fake smile to convince Aaron everything was okay when she really did not feel comfortable at all.  

“Daddy,” Mike looks over at Sarah who looks close to tears, he walks over to her pulling her into his arms, “What’s wrong princess?”  

“I don’t feel good,” he feels her forehead, “She feels warm, Jill can you get her thermometer out of my backpack?”  Jill nods walking into the living room where their luggage was, getting Sarah’s first aid stuff out of Mike’s bag.  

“What’s bothering you baby?”  Sarah twists into Mike’s chest, burying her face into his neck, “My tummy hurts and my head hurts.”  He rubs her back as Jill walks back into the kitchen handing him the thermometer.  

Mike checks her temperature, making her squirm a bit, “100.1, come on baby, let’s go lie down, yeah?”  Sarah nods as Mike hands Jill the thermometer, “I’ll go put her to bed then I’ll be back down,” he leans in to give Jill a kiss and heads upstairs to his old bedroom.  

 

“Daddy!”  Mike gets up from the kitchen table and heads up to Sarah, “What’s wrong baby?”  She reaches her arms out for him to pick her up, “I want you, I don’t like being by myself,” he sits down on the bed, pulling her onto his lap.  

“You want me to lay down with you?”  She nods, cuddling into him, “I don’t feel good daddy,” Mike holds her close, rubbing her back, “I know baby, that’s why you gotta rest, it’ll make you feel better.”  

Jill walks into the bedroom about ten minutes later to see Mike and Sarah fast asleep, she pulls a blanket over them and heads back downstairs to talk to Lisa and Scott.  

“How is she?”  Lisa asks, working on their dinner, “She’s asleep, so is Mike, he’s had a long couple of days at work and hasn’t gotten a lot of sleep.”  

“He works so hard, he still doing undercover work?”  Lisa asks, Jill shakes her head, “No, not since he found Sarah, he’s been running tactical for some undercover cases and he’s been adamant on stopping sex trade.”  Lisa smiles at Jill as Scott gets up from the kitchen table, walking out to the hallway, “Where are you going Scott?”  

“I just thought I’d go for a walk, I’ll be back later,” Jill looks at Lisa confused, but they just shrug it off going back to cooking.  

 

Mike walks down the stairs into the kitchen with a sleepy eyed Sarah in his arms, “Hey, where’s dad?”  He asks, rocking Sarah gently, “He went for a walk about an hour ago, I’m not sure where he is,” Lisa responds setting the table for dinner.  They all sit down to eat, Sarah just drinking her juice since she’s still running a fever and doesn’t feel well.  

When Scott gets back he stumbles into the house, taking a seat at the kitchen table with everyone, Mike pulls Sarah’s chair closer to him, away from Scott.  “Have you been drinking?”  Mike asks Scott.  

“No, Mikey, of course not,” Scott says slapping Mike on the shoulder, “Don’t touch me,” Mike moves Scott’s hand out of the way, going back to eating his food until he notices Scott touching Sarah, his arm wrapped around her shoulders, “Sarah, you wanna give your grandpa a hug?”  Mike looks down at Sarah who’s scooting further away.  

“Dad, stop it, leave her alone,” Scott smiles up at Mike, then reaches to try and pick up Sarah, “Don’t touch her!” Mike yells, pushing Scott’s hands out of the way.  

“Mike, come on, she can’t give her grandpa a hug?”  Scott continues pushing before quickly sweeping Sarah into his arms, “Daddy! Daddy help!”  Mike takes Sarah from him, holding her close, “I’ve got you princess, you’re okay, I’m here.”  

“Scott, what the hell has gotten into you?”  Lisa asks as Jill gets up from her chair to check on Sarah, “Relax Lisa, baby,” he gets up from his chair and walks over to Lisa, kneeling down next to her chair.  

“Scott, get the hell away from me, you’re plastered!”  She pushes him away from her, causing him to grab her by the shoulders, “Do not push me, you stupid bitch!” Scott backhand slaps Lisa across the face, Mike practically throws Sarah into Jill’s arms, grabbing his dad from behind, pressing him against the wall.  

“I swear to God, you come anywhere near her ever again and I will beat you within an inch of your life and then I will not hesitate to throw you in a prison cell for the rest of your fucking life.”  Scott pulls out of Mike’s grip, retaliating so that now Mike was against the wall.  “Jill, take Sarah and my mom upstairs please, I have something to take care of, and call John to come out here.”  Mike stares into his dad’s eyes, remembering situations like this all too well from when he was much younger, “You have two options, get out of this house forever, or I will not hesitate to arrest you.”  

“You wouldn’t arrest your own dad, would you? You couldn’t even stick up for you and your mom all those years ago, you froze up, remember that?”  Mike reached his arm up and punched Scott in the face, “You’ve chosen, which means as soon as John gets here, you’re done.”  Scott pulls Mike away from the wall, throwing him on the ground, punching him in the face a few times. 

“Your little girlfriend, Jill, she’s pretty, how’d you manage that, huh?” Mike punches him, before Scott can pin Mike’s arms above his head.  “I’m gonna kill you, you son of a bitch!”  Mike yells, writhing underneath of Scott.  

“You’ve said that before, remember? When you were ten and you had that fancy handgun your grandfather gave you just in case? You held it up and you said those exact words, but before you could even think of shooting me, you froze up, you put the gun down, because you’re weak.”  Mike stares blankly at him, vividly remembering that night.  

 

_ “Mike! Call 911! Help me!” Lisa screamed as Scott held her up against the wall, bringing his hand to her neck, “Dad what are you doing?”  Mike looked in horror at the sight in front of him before running back to his room, grabbing the gun his grandfather gave to him in case his dad went too far.   _

_ “Dad get away from her!” He yelled, holding the gun in the air, pointedly at his father.  “Son, this isn’t your business, leave!”  Mike has tears streaming down his face as he watches his mother’s bruised face start slowly turning more and more red.  “I’m gonna kill you, you son of a bitch!” Mike yelled, his voice so shaky he didn’t sound like himself.  _

 

“Daddy!”  Mike looks over seeing Sarah in the kitchen, “Baby, go back upstairs, it’s okay.”  Scott looks over at her, getting up off of Mike, running over to Sarah, picking her up as Mike struggles to get off the ground, a bit dizzy and disoriented.  “Put her down!”  Mike yells as Jill runs down the stairs.  He starts walking closer to Scott to get Sarah as Scott inches closer to the front door, “I will run out of this house with her, try me.”  

Sarah screams for Mike, writhing in Scott’s arms, “Daddy, help me!”  Mike stops walking as he hears sirens outside, “It’s over, dad, give it up,” he looks at Sarah, who has tears running down her face, her screams getting louder as he notices Scott’s grip on her tightening.  

“Police! Open up!”  Nobody moves, Mike and Jill out of fear for what Scott will do, and Scott because he has nowhere to move.  All of a sudden the door is being forced open, in come multiple policemen and federal agents, guns in the air.  

“Nobody move!”  Sarah covers her ears with her hands, Mike notices her struggling to breathe.  “Sarah, baby look at me!”  She doesn’t move, frozen in Scott’s arms, “Mike, get Sarah, take her upstairs,” he looks over seeing John with his gun pointed at Scott.  Mike runs over grabbing Sarah who instantly starts panicking at the movement, he takes her to the living room, seeing as how it’s closer with Jill.  “Ella! I want Ella!”  Sarah screams at the top of her lungs.    

 

Mike lies Sarah down on the floor on her side, rubbing her back as Jill gets in Mike’s backpack for Sarah’s elephant.  “Sarah, baby, it’s me, you’re okay,” Jill hands him the stuffed animal and he places it in front of her, making it known to her.  

“Look, it’s your Ella, she’s right here, hold onto her.”  Sarah shakily reaches out to grab the elephant, holding her close.  “Good girl, good job baby, take nice deep breaths with daddy, okay?”  Jill encourages her as Mike starts exaggerating his breathing to show Sarah.  

Lisa runs down the stairs to them, John having gone up to get her.  “Mike, oh my god,” Mike stands up holding his mom close.  “He’s gone, I’ll take care of it,” Lisa sobs into his chest, letting him hold her with every ounce of protection he has in his body as Jill and John get Sarah back to herself.  

All of a sudden they hear, “I want daddy,” very quietly from Sarah, he turns around to see her holding her arms out to him.  He bends down picking her up and carrying her over to the couch.  “I’ve got you princess, I’m here.  Are you hurt?”  She shakes her head, laying on his chest, “Your face is bleeding, daddy,” Jill runs into the kitchen to get ice for his face and the first aid kit to clean him up.  

“I’ll be okay baby, just relax alright? Are you feeling sick still?”  She shakes her head, squeezing him tight.  Jill rushes back to his side, cleaning up the cuts on his face and then putting the ice pack to his cheek.  “Are you alright baby?”  Jill asks him, clearly worried sick, “I’m fine, seriously, I’ve been through much worse.”  

 

The agents and police leave the house, leaving Mike, Jill, Lisa and Sarah to themselves.  “Mom, are you alright?”  Mike asks as Sarah falls asleep in his lap.  

“I’m fine, honey, just feel really stupid, if I’m being honest,” she responds setting her cup of tea on the coffee table.  “Don’t, it’s not your fault, you thought he changed, you saw the good in him, Lisa, that’s not your fault,” Jill consoles her.  

“Mom, you gotta get away from here, move more towards us, we never get to see you enough as it is,” Mike says quietly so as not to disturb the sleeping child in his lap.  

“I know baby, but it’s easier said than done.  This is our house, this is where we raised you,” Mike shakes his head, shifting Sarah a bit, “No, this is where I witnessed him beating the shit out of you on multiple occasions, and where he almost killed both of us multiple times.  I was raised at gram and gramps’ house and up at the cabin, you and I both know that.”  

“I know angel, but now that they’re gone, I have nothing, when your father came back from rehab and told me all the ways he’d changed, I wanted him back so bad.  He reminded me so much of the Scott I knew before we got married.”  Mike smiles at her as Sarah wiggles a bit, he looks down to see her open her eyes.  

“Daddy?”  Mike puts his hand on her back, “I’m right here, you can go back to sleep princess.”  

“I don’t feel good,” she sits up immediately and he notices she looks a bit green, he quickly carries her to the bathroom, sitting down on the floor she leans over the toilet, throwing up all that she had eaten that day.  

“Mike, does she need her juice?”  Jill calls from the living room, “Yeah! Get her blanket too, please!”  Sarah looks back at Mike and crawls into his lap, “I don’t want juice, I wanna cuddle, daddy.”  He wraps his arms around her, holding her close, “Okay, let’s go lay down on the couch and relax, yeah?”  

 

“Mommy! Daddy!”  Mike looks over at Jill, who’s fast asleep, he gets up out of bed and heads into Sarah’s room, she is standing next to the bed when he walks into the room.  

“Hi baby, why are you up?”  She points to the bed and he looks at it, seeing her puke everywhere, “Baby, why didn’t you come get me? Let’s go clean you up,” he picks her up and carries her into the bathroom downstairs.  “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do it, daddy,” he smiles at her, pulling her pajamas off, “I know you didn’t, I’m not upset with you.”  

He walks over to the bathtub, starting the water, “Stay put, I’m gonna go get you one of my t-shirts since we only packed one pair of pajamas.”  He rushes back upstairs grabbing a shirt and then going into Sarah’s room to get her a fresh pair of underwear before running back downstairs where she was sitting on the bathroom floor with her arms over her chest.  

“Hop in the tub baby, we gotta get you cleaned up,” she walks over to the tub and climbs in as Mike kneels down next to it, grabbing a washcloth from the side of the tub, “Did mommy wash your hair when she gave you a bath earlier?”  Sarah nods, laying her head on Mike’s chest as he rubs her back, “Okay, you still feel sick?”  

“Yeah, can I snuggle in your bed?”  Mike kisses the top of her head before reaching over to get Sarah’s body wash off the inside of the tub, “Sit up and wash off and then you can,” she sits up and sticks her lip out, “I don’t wanna.”  Mike raises his eyebrow at her, “Are you a big girl?”  She nods and he holds the washcloth out to her, “Then you can clean yourself up, can’t you?”  She nods again, her bottom lip still out and takes the washcloth from him.  

 

“Mommy,” Sarah whines, crawling into Mike and Jill’s bed causing Jill to wake up, “What? What’s wrong?”  Sarah crawls into Jill’s arms, snuggling into her, “I got sick, mommy,” Jill looks up at Mike and he smiles at her, “I’ll go clean up, you two go back to sleep, I’ll get a bucket for her to keep in here tonight.”  

“Okay,” Jill says, looking down at Sarah, “You heard daddy, you need to get some sleep,” Sarah wraps her little arms around Jill, closing her eyes to go to sleep.  

 

“Happy Thanksgiving mama, you need help with anything?”  Mike asks, hugging his mom from behind, “Yeah, can you start on the dressing? Turkey is under control right now.”  

“Absolutely, you feeling okay? Your cheek doesn’t look much better,” Mike says, reaching into the fridge to get out ingredients for the dressing.  “Speak for yourself, you’re face has seen better days baby,” Mike chuckles kissing her on the cheek, “Yeah, I guess you’re right, I’ve had worse, mama, I can handle a little beating from my dad, nothing I haven’t dealt with before.”  

“Mikey, look at me,” he sighs, turning to face her, “What happened to you out in California, baby?”  

“Nothing out of the territory of my job, okay?”

“Mikey, what types of things happened to you?”

“Mom, I’m fine, I’m not-” 

“Mike! Tell me what happened,” he looks her in the eyes, tears welling up in his own, “I got stabbed my first case, it was as we were making the arrests, I healed though, I was fine.  But then after I went back to California the next year, I got shot, I was on a hero mission mom, I fucked up.  I got hooked on painkillers, I thought I was gonna turn into him, I was so scared, last night when he was yelling, I did that shit to my friends! I did that, I looked the only people that gave a shit about me in California in the eyes and I yelled at them, telling them how all of my problems were their fault.”  She walks over to him, pulling him in close to her.  

“Baby, you could never be him, you are so much more than that, your grandfather would be so proud of you, you are the man he always knew you would be.”  Mike hugs his mom as close as he can, “It scared me, and then when I got custody of Sarah, I was terrified.  I still am terrified, what if I screw it all up?”  

“You’re a better father to Sarah than you might think, she is obsessed with you, and I know how much you love her, and how much Jill loves both of you.  It’ll be alright, I promise.”  Mike pulls away once he hears Sarah and Jill walking down the stairs, he wipes his eyes and walks over to them, picking Sarah up.  

“Hi princess, how are you feeling?”  She lays her head on Mike’s shoulder, “My tummy still hurts, daddy.”  He feels her forehead, “Jill, can you get her some more medicine? She’s burning up,” he looks down at Sarah and kisses her forehead, “You wanna lie down on the couch and watch the parade while mommy, grandma and I cook?”  

“What’s a parade?”  Mike then remembers that she probably has never actually watched the Thanksgiving Day parade, “You’ll see, you’ll love it.”  

“Okay daddy!” He smiles and carries her into the living room, laying her on the couch and turning on the TV to the parade, luckily it hadn’t started yet, but was about to.  “I’ll go get your blanket and Ella, I’ll be right back.”  

 

“Here you go princess, you just chill out here, did mommy get you medicine?”  She nods her head and reaches for her cup, “Can you get me my juice daddy?”  He grabs it off the coffee table and hands it to her, “Just rest, okay? We want you feeling better for dinner, yeah?”  She nods her head and lifts her head up, puckering her lips, “Kiss!”  

He leans down puckering his lips out at her, “Mwah! Love you baby girl,” she smiles and falls back onto her pillow, “Love you daddy.” 


	14. Chapter 14

After Sarah’s Thanksgiving break, she had a few weeks left at school till her winter break and Mike was taking her shopping for some Christmas decorations, he wanted to make sure her first Christmas was perfect.  

“Mike, why do people put trees in their house? Are we gonna do that?”  He chuckles at her as she watches all the people buy fake trees and ornaments.  “Yeah, it’s a tradition, but we are gonna get a real tree later when Jill gets back from her friend’s house.”  Sarah plays with his fingers on the shopping cart, “Sarah, look, can you count how many ornaments are in here?”  Mike holds up a box, watching her count them, “Twelve?” she asks hopefully, “Good job! You’re so smart!”  She smiles up at him as they pick out a couple boxes of regular ornaments before going to the more fun ones.  

“Do you want to get your own tree for your room? We can get a colored one so that we can use it every year in your room.”  She nods her head, “Can I get a blue one? Or a pink one?”  He nods, kissing the top of her head, “Let’s go find one, and then we can go get you some special ornaments for you.”  

 

“Hey guys! How was shopping for decorations?”  Jill asks, walking up to them when they walk in the apartment, “It was so much fun! Mike got me a tree to put in my room and we bought princess ornaments and stockings for all of us, we got you a pretty Cinderella one, you wanna see?”  Jill smiles big, her eyes wide, “Of course I wanna see, where is it?”  Sarah walks over to Mike, not letting him put the bags down as she goes through them.  

“Sarah, how about we put all this in the living room so I can get the rest and you and Jill can start sorting?”  Mike suggests, leading her to the living room as she continues looking through the bags in his arms.  He sets them down heading out to the car as Jill helps Sarah take everything out of the bags.  

Mike brings the rest of the stuff in the living room before grabbing his speaker and turning on Christmas music to put them in the spirit while they decorate everything before the tree.  

 

“Sarah, go tell daddy he needs to put the hooks on the fireplace for the stockings,” she hops up and runs into the hallway where Mike was hanging the wreath on their door.  “Daddy, mommy said you need to hang the hooks up on the fireplace.”  

“Okay baby, give me a second,” he puts the finishing touches on the door before walking her back to the living room where Jill is stringing garland on the mantle.  “Hi baby, you couldn’t put the hooks up?”  She shakes her head, “I don’t like command strips for stockings and I am afraid to use the hammer or drill myself.”  

He smiles, kissing the top of her head, “Okay, I’ll do that, but only if a certain little girl will clean her room so we can put her decorations up.”  He raises his voice a bit louder for the last part making Sarah hide her face in the couch, “Do I have to?”  

“Yes, we bought that big tree for your room, don’t you want to put it up?”  She nods, sluggishly getting off the couch and running to her room to clean it up.  

 

“I want this one, daddy!”  Mike and Jill walk over to where Sarah is pointing at a tree that is three times the size of one they could fit in the apartment.  “How about we pick out a smaller one, baby?”  She throws herself at Jill’s legs, reaching her arms up to be carried, “I don’t want a smaller one, I like this one.”  Jill picks her up, placing her on her hip, “Baby we can’t fit that one in the house, let’s go look for one that will, okay?”  She throws her head in the crook of Jill’s neck, “We can go home and daddy can go pick up a fake tree if you want.”   

“No, I want a real one!” Sarah screams, kicking her feet, “Sarah, since when do we act out if we don’t get what we want?”  Sarah screams again and starts crying, causing everyone to look at them.  Mike takes her from Jill, carrying her over to their car.  He opens the door and sits her in the car seat, causing Jill to look at him confused.  “Jill, how about you go pick out the perfect tree and Sarah can sit here and throw her fit.”  Sarah kicks her feet at the seat in front of her, still crying.  “I wanna pick the tree!” she screams again.  

“Nope, mommy is picking the tree now, you are acting up, we don’t do that, do we?”  She shakes her head, crossing her arms.  “I wanted that tree, daddy,” he puts his hands on his hips, looking at Jill, “Should we come back tomorrow instead when you’re not throwing a fit?”  

“No! I want the tree tonight!”  Mike looks at Sarah pointedly, “What do you say, then?”  She holds her arms out to Mike as he picks her up, “I’m sorry daddy, I’ll be good.”  He kisses the top of her head, “What do you say to mommy for kicking her?”  

“I’m sorry mommy, I didn’t mean to kick you,” she rubs her eyes, “You’re forgiven, baby, let’s go pick out a tree and go home, it’s getting late.”  They walk back to the trees, searching for about ten minutes till they find just the right one.  

 

“Sarah, you want some hot cocoa?”  She nods, yawning, “Yes please,” Jill hands her another ornament before going to the kitchen to make some hot chocolate.  “Mike, what’s that?” Sarah asks as he unwraps the star for the top of the tree, “This was the star that me and grandma would put on our tree every year when I was a kid, she gave it to me for you to put on our tree.”  Sarah gasps, “Really? Can I put it on there now?”  

“Let’s wait till Jill gets back in here, then you can, how’s that?”  Sarah nods in agreement as Jill walks back in the room, “What are you guys talking about?”  

“Daddy said I get to put the star on the tree!”  Mike picks her up, carefully handing her the star, “There you go, baby, be careful with it, okay?”  She nods as he lifts her up and she puts it on the top branch as carefully as she can.  Mike brings her back down as Jill walks around the tree to plug it in.  

“It’s so pretty!”  Sarah exclaims proudly, “It is, isn’t it?”  Jill walks up to them, kissing Mike softly as Sarah leans her head on Mike’s shoulder.  Mike pulls away from Jill, looking at Sarah, “You tired baby?”  She nods, nestling into his chest, “Alright, bathtime and bedtime,” he carries Sarah to her room, getting her pajamas out while she goes into the bathroom to wait for Mike to start her bath water.

 

“Mike, do I have to go to school today?” he nods, handing Sarah her cup with juice in it, “Yeah baby, why wouldn’t you want to?”  She shrugs her shoulders, “Everyone at school keeps talking about an old man who watches us while we sleep and decides if we should get presents and I don’t like it.”  Mike kneels down next to her, “Hey, Santa Claus isn’t a man who’s gonna hurt you, okay?”  She leans forward, falling into his arms, “I don’t wanna go to school daddy.”  

“You’ve only got a couple more weeks until you get off school for three weeks, you sure you wanna miss today?  Mommy and I have a lot of big meetings today that we can’t miss.”  She nuzzles her head into his neck, “Will you make sure that Santa can’t find me on Christmas?”  He rubs her back softly, “How about me, you and mommy go to the mall after school today and you can see for yourself how nice Santa is?”  

“Okay daddy.”  

“Okay, now let’s head to school or we will both be late.”  

 

“Sarah, I promise, he’s not gonna hurt you, okay? He’s a nice man.”  Sarah holds onto Mike with every ounce of strength that she has, “Daddy, I don’t like him.”  Jill rubs her back and watches as they get closer to the front of the line.  

Sarah starts crying as they near the front and Mike is trying to calm her down by the time they’re next.  “Alright, here,” Mike walks her to Santa and puts her on his lap, “look baby, you’re okay, yeah?”  She shakes her head, reaching her arms out for Mike, “Daddy!”  The Santa tries his best to ease her mind and calm her down, but Mike can tell she’s not having it.  

He reaches out to take her back as she starts screaming, “Alright, let’s go baby,” she latches onto him as Jill apologizes to the Santa.  “Daddy!”

“I’ve got you angel, you’re okay, daddy’s got you,” she cries into his shoulder as he gets them outside to the car, by the time he’s got the back door open to get Sarah’s blanket out, Mike notices her gag, “Baby, are you gonna be sick?” before she can respond, she pukes all over the ground next to the car.  

“Oh princess, are you okay?”  Jill asks, rubbing her back, “I don’t like Santa, mommy,” she takes Sarah from Mike, rocking her gently while Mike finds an extra set of clothes for Sarah, “I know you didn’t like him, I’m sorry baby.”  Mike goes around to open up the trunk so that they can change Sarah’s clothes.  “Daddy, I want daddy!”  Jill lays her down in the trunk and Mike sits down next to her, stroking her hair and calming her down while Jill changes Sarah out of her pukey clothes.  

“Baby you wanna go home? Daddy will make you your favorite since he made you see Santa,” Jill says as they put her in her car seat.  “Daddy I want mac and cheese and hot cocoa,” he smiles at her, “Of course, anything for my princess.”  He wipes the stray tears off her cheeks, leaning down to kiss her forehead before going back up to the driver’s seat.  

 

When they get home, Sarah is fast asleep in her seat, Mike carries her inside as Jill heads on inside to start the hot cocoa.  “Jill, should I put her in bed or wake her up?”  

“Put her in her pajamas and wake her up, she might have homework,” he nods his head taking her to her room, laying her on the bed, “Daddy?”  Mike smiles at her before going to get her pajamas, “Let’s get you changed then do your schoolwork, okay baby?”  She nods, yawning and rubbing her eyes.  

 

“Mommy, can you help me with my homework?”  Jill walks over to Sarah, sitting next to her and looks down at her paper, “Reading is your best subject, what do you need my help on?”  Sarah points at a question with a picture of a bear hibernating and underneath were the letters ‘d’ and ‘n’ with a blank space in between them.  

“Okay, well what’s that a picture of?”  Sarah shrugs her shoulders, laying her head on the table, “You okay baby?”  She shakes her head, jumping off the chair and walking over to Mike, hugging onto his leg.  He looks down, patting her head with his hand, “What’s wrong angel?”  She shakes her head again, cuddling into his leg some more.  Mike looks up at Jill who’s just as confused as he is.  

“Sarah, sweetheart, why don’t you go sit with mommy and I’ll bring your food over to you, okay?”  She nods, slowly making her way back to Jill, sitting in her lap as Jill moves Sarah’s homework off to the side.  

Mike walks over with a plate and Sarah’s cup, setting them down in front of her, Jill picks up the fork and helps Sarah eat her mac and cheese.  “What’s wrong princess?” Mike asks her quietly, “I don’t wanna go to school tomorrow, there was a boy from my class seeing Santa, and he was laughing at me.”  

“Oh, angel, that’s not very nice, is it?”  She shakes her head, leaning back into Jill, “Can I please go to work with you tomorrow, daddy?”  He looks up at Jill, obviously worried about Sarah, Jill nods her head at him, “Okay princess, I’ll call your teacher in the morning and we can go get your work and then head to the office.”  She nods, snuggling into Jill, “I’m tired mommy,” Jill wraps her arms around her, kissing the top of her head.  “Alright, let’s get you up to bed,” Jill stands up carrying Sarah to her room, followed by Mike.


	15. Chapter 15

“Daddy! Look! I colored my Christmas tree like the one at our house!”  He looks down at the paper she shoves onto his desk, “Oh wow, that’s so good, baby!”  

“Put it on the wall, so you can see it everyday!”  He takes a piece of tape from his desk and hangs it up on the wall next to his computer, “There, now I can look at your beautiful artwork everyday while I’m working.”  She smiles at him, crawling into his lap as he leans back in his chair.  “What are you working on, daddy?”  

“I am working on finding a new case that can help girls that were like you that are away from people that can give them love,” she moves around to her knees, wrapping her arms around his neck, “You love me, don’t you daddy?”  Mike kisses her cheek, smiling at her, “I love you more than anything in the whole world, monkey,” Sarah giggles at him kissing him sloppily on the nose.  

 

“You guys ready to go home?” Jill asks walking into Mike’s office, “Yeah, Sarah, you got all your stuff? We aren’t gonna be back here for a few days.”  Sarah picks up her doll and backpack and runs over to Mike, “I got it all!”  They head out of the FBI offices, giving their season’s greetings as they head out since the next day is Christmas Eve.  

“Daddy, can we watch a Christmas movie when we get home?” Sarah asks as she hops into the car, “Yeah, of course we can, princess.”  

 

Mike puts the movie in the DVD player and walks back to the couch where Sarah is laying in Jill’s lap.  “Daddy I need a blanket!” Mike grabs one out of the basket next to the fireplace and turns the fireplace on while he’s at it.  “Here you go baby, you need anything else?”  She shakes her head and snuggles into Jill to watch the movie.  

Mike was sure Sarah was asleep until a Santa came up in the movie, “Mike!” he leans over, resting his head on Jill’s shoulder so he can see Sarah, whose head is resting on Jill’s chest, “It’s okay, baby, he’s just in the movie, he’s not gonna hurt you.”  

“Mike, I don’t like him,” she reaches her arms out to him and he takes her from Jill, “It’s okay princess, he’s not gonna get you.”  Sarah cuddles into Mike, a lump in her throat.  “Mike, I don’t want to watch this movie anymore,” Jill gets up off the couch and changes to a movie without Santa Claus in it.  

“There you go, sweetheart, mommy changed it for you,” Sarah turns around in Mike’s lap, “Thank you mommy, daddy is mean.”  She goes back to Jill’s lap, “Oh, I know he is, it’s okay though, most men are.”  Mike looks at her, offended, “I’m not mean, you don’t mean that, do you bug?”  Sarah nods her head, smiling at him, “Yes I do.”  

“Oh do you?” she nods again, giggling, Mike picks her up out of Jill’s lap, tickling her, “Do you believe it now?”  She shakes her head, laughing hysterically, “No! Daddy, you’re not mean!”  He picks her back up, putting her on his lap, “Thank you, now, let’s watch the movie mommy picked out.” 

 

The next day, Mike decided it would be a good idea to take Sarah to the soup kitchen to help people around their community on Christmas Eve.  “Mike, where’s Sarah’s boots? It’s snowing out and I can’t find them!”  

“They’re in the front hall! She wore them last night! Make sure you put her church outfit in the car, babe!”  

“I know, I’ll get it! Are you almost done with her hair?”  

“Yes! Send her to me when you’re done!”  

Mike had never thought of him and Jill as the type of people to fully become parents just because they had a kid, but now he could fully see them having kids of their own to add to their family, and he knew Jill felt the same.  

“Mommy, daddy’s finished with my hair, where are my shoes?” Sarah asks, walking into the living room, “Here you go, baby, put them on so we can go, we’re running late.” Sarah puts her boots on and walks back to Jill who has Sarah’s coat, scarf, and hat waiting for her.  “Alright, we ready to go?” Mike asks, walking into the living room.  

“Yep, we are ready, and remember Sarah, be super nice to everyone you meet today, okay?”  She nods, taking Mike’s hand to walk out to the car.  

 

“Hi there, sweetheart, would you like to come help out with the other kids your age?” Sarah clings to Mike’s leg as a man who volunteers at the kitchen comes up to them, “I wanna stay with you, daddy,” Mike bends down to her level, “Hey, it’s okay, nobody here is gonna hurt you, okay? These are all good people.”  

The volunteer holds his hand out to her and she takes it, he walks her to the kids so that she could play with them and talk to them while they ate and while their parents ate.  

“Alright, and you two can come with me and we will get you all set up!” the female volunteer says to Mike and Jill excitedly.  

 

“Excuse me, Mike? Could I steal you away for a moment?” one of the volunteers asks him, “Oh, yeah, of course, what’s going on?”  

“Sarah really needs you,” at that, Mike runs over to the room she’s in, he sees her in the corner with her hands over her ears, rocking back and forth, “Sarah, baby,” he runs over to her, scooping her up in his arms, “hi baby, daddy’s got you, you’re okay.”  She cries into his chest, holding onto him with all the strength in her body, Mike looks up at the volunteer, “What happened? What’d you do to her?”  

“I didn’t do anything, I swear!” the man says, defensively, “He said Santa was gonna come to see me in a few minutes, he’s not, right?!”  Mike rubs her back, rocking her slowly, “Shh, Santa isn’t coming to see you, come on, let’s go see mommy.”  

 

Later that day once they got to John’s house, Mike went to help Sarah get changed into her church clothes while Jill helped Ashley out with setting up their living room for the small party after church.  

“Daddy, these tights are itchy, do I have to wear them?” he chuckles at her, taking her hair out of the ponytail to brush it, “Yes, mommy bought them for you, she wants you to wear them with your dress.” 

Sarah picks at the tights while Mike tries doing something with her hair.  “Mike, we gotta go! John’s already in the car!”  

“Coming!” he yells back to Jill, “Alright, let’s go, we gotta get good seats at church.”  

 

“Alright Sarah, open up your next gift,” Ashley encourages her, handing her another package. She rips open the paper to reveal a brand new American Girl Doll, “She’s so pretty! Thank you Ashley, thank you John!”  Mike reaches over to help her open the doll up out of the box, “Oh look, there’s a book about her for you to read!”  

“Yay! Let me see!” Sarah pulls it out of his hands, excitedly, “Daddy, can we read this tonight before bed?”  

“How about you read it with John and Ashley after we finish opening gifts, I have something else to read tonight.” Sarah frowns looking down at the book, “Okay,” she looks back up at John and Ashley who set another gift in front of her, “This is your last one, okay?”  

“Okay!” she opens it up to see a whole box full of American Girl accessories and clothes complete with a bed for her doll.  She gasps, jumping up off the floor to hug Ashley and John, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”  

“Sarah, daddy has your doll out of the box!” Jill says, pointing at Mike, “Thank you daddy!” she exclaims taking the doll from him.  “You’re welcome baby,” Mike looks up at Jill, “I have a gift for you, actually to open tonight,” she looks at him confused, “Okay, what is it?”  Sarah is off sitting with Ashley, dressing up her new doll as Mike gets up out of his seat to kneel in front of Jill.  

“I know that you don’t want a wedding, or marriage at all, however your Christmas gift from me, is this; I promise to you that I will love you for the rest of our lives, I will be your life partner, no matter what life throws at us, we’ve been through so much the last year or so and I know for a fact we can continue down this road and always come out rosy, I love you so much.”  Jill smiles at him, tears in her eyes, threatening to spill over, “I love you, Mike, thank you,” he smiles, leaning up to wrap his arms around her waist, pulling her close enough to kiss her.  

 

“I’ll take her, Ashley, John can you help Mike load up the car?” John nods, jumping up to pick up boxes as Jill takes Sarah.  “Thank you guys for being there for us and for Sarah, she really loves you guys,” Ashley smiles at her, “Of course, she’s a really great kid, because of you guys, trust me.”  

They walk outside and Mike takes Sarah from Jill causing her to stir, “Daddy?”  He rubs her back, rocking her, “Shh, go back to sleep, we’re gonna head home.”  Sarah eases back into sleep and Mike puts her in her car seat and they all say their goodbyes to head home.  

 

“Daddy, what are you making?” Mike turns around to see a sleepy Sarah in Jill’s arms, “I’m making you some hot chocolate and your favorite breakfast to have while we open presents.  Grandma is on her way over here and so is Jill’s mom and dad.”  Sarah leans her head on Jill’s shoulder as Mike puts their food on plates and they all head into the living room.  

 

“Grandma!” Sarah jumps up off the floor to greet Mike’s mother, “Hi there angel, merry Christmas!”  Mike leans over to take a sip of his coffee, “Sarah baby, come finish your food, we’ve got a lot going on today, you need to eat breakfast.”  She runs back over to her spot, laughing at Mike as he plays with her new dolls with her while she eats.  

 

“Nonna, look at my new doll that Ashley and John got me!” Sarah holds her doll up, “Oh wow, she’s beautiful, what’s her name?”  

“I don’t know, I didn’t know I was supposed to name her,” she runs over to Mike, “Daddy, nonna said I was supposed to name my doll, what do I name her?”  

“That’s up to you, princess, what name do you like?” she puts her pointer finger to her chin, thinking about it hard, “Paige! My friend Ava said her dog’s name is Paige.”  Mike shifts in his seat uncomfortable, “You sure about that name?” Sarah nods her head, absolutely confident in her decision.  Before Mike can say anything else, there’s a knock at the door.  “Jill, can you get that?”  She nods, getting up from her seat to answer the door.  

“Mike, there’s some people here for you?” Mike looks up before walking to the front hallway where he sees three very familiar faces standing in the doorway, “Oh my god, what are you guys doing in D.C.?”  

“Freezing our asses off, Mikey, how about you let us in?” Charlie says, smiling, “Oh yeah, of course, come in, come in.”  Charlie, Johnny and Paige all walk into the apartment, hugging him, “I can’t believe you guys are here, this is great! Merry Christmas!”  

“Merry Christmas, Mikey, what food did you make?”  Mike laughs at Johnny, pointing to the kitchen, “There’s bacon, eggs, toast, casserole, and hot cocoa.  Pig out, I made a ton.”  Johnny runs to the kitchen as Mike turns to Charlie and Paige, “Guys, this is Jill, my girlfriend, I guess now my life partner as of last night,” he chuckles.  “It’s so nice to meet you guys, Mike talks about California all the time,” Jill says, shaking their hands. 

“Daddy! John’s being mean!”  Mike laughs, looking in the living room, “Just a second baby, I’ll be right there.”  Charlie and Paige look at him confused, “Daddy?”  

“Sarah, actually, could you come in here for me?”  Sarah runs into the hallway, attaching herself to Mike’s leg, “This is Sarah, my daughter, Jill and I adopted her a couple months ago.  Sarah, this is Charlie and Paige, and this-” he looks over as Johnny walks back into the hallway, a plate in hand, “is Johnny.  They’re friends of mine.”  

Charlie bends down, shaking Sarah’s hand, “Hi there, Sarah, it’s nice to meet you.” Sarah smiles at her, “Hi, it’s nice to meet you, Charlie.”  Sarah looks up at Mike, “Did you say her name was Paige?”  He nods at her, “Yeah, I did.”  

Sarah turns to Paige, “I named my new doll Paige!”  Paige looks up at Mike, giggling nervously, “Did you now? Can I see her?” Sarah nods, running back to the living room to get her doll.  “If you guys will excuse me, I need to go check on the turkey for dinner,” Jill excuses herself, giving Mike a quick peck on the cheek.  

Charlie and Johnny make their way back to the living room, Charlie keeping Sarah busy while Mike and Paige talk.  “So, this ‘life partner’ of yours…” Mike rolls his eyes, “Don’t even, you don’t have the right to get possessive or jealous that I met someone else.”  

“I’m not, why are you getting defensive?”  

“Maybe because you always did this shit at Graceland and I don’t need it now.”  

“Did what shit?”  

“You would get jealous of a relationship I was in, happy relationships, might I add, and you make me feel guilty for every little thing I might be doing wrong.  So what is it this time? What did I do that was so wrong?”  

“Mike, do you want me to leave? I thought I’d come see my friend, whose life I ruined, because I felt so guilty about that entire situation.”  

“Oh, I’m so glad you came for yourself, I’m so glad that you decided to check up on me to make sure that  _ you _ could be happy in life.”  

“Mike, that’s not what I’m doing and you know it.”  

“Do I? Because it seems to me that I’m your little play thing, you come into my life, you seduce me, you manipulate me and then you ruin my life.  I’m finally happy, I’m home, I found the love of my life, I have a daughter and am planning more of a family with Jill, I don’t need-” Mike is cut off by Jill walking back into the hallway.  

“Hey baby, you okay? You look tense,” he smiles at her, leaning down and making a point out of kissing her, hard.  “Baby, stop, we’ve got company,” she pushes him off, trying to hide her smile.  “Paige, would you like to come see Sarah, she’s really taken a liking to you.”  

“Yeah, sure, I’d love to,” Jill leads Paige into the living room, leaving Mike frustrated and a little anxious.  

 

“Daddy, can I sit with you?” Sarah asks, tears in her eyes, “Yeah, princess, what’s wrong?”  She climbs into his lap, crying in his chest, “Baby, what happened? I thought you were having fun with Johnny.”  She shakes her head as Mike rubs her back, “I want you, I don’t wanna play with them.”  

Mike looks at Johnny, who just shrugs his shoulders, then looks at Paige who is sitting right next to Johnny talking to Jill.  “Baby, did Paige say something that bothered you?”  

She looks up at him, wrapping her arms around his neck, “She said you got hurt, daddy, are you okay?”  He smiles at her, wiping a tear off of her cheek with his thumb, “I’m okay, I promise, that was a long time ago when I got hurt.”  He pulls her down to his chest, holding her close, “I’m not going anywhere, I’m here for the long haul, princess.”


	16. Chapter 16

January came around and Charlie, Paige, and Johnny were still hanging out in D.C., Mike wouldn’t have cared as much if Paige didn’t keep discussing their lives back in California around Sarah.  “Daddy, Charlie said that you used to work all the time and that you never took a break, why did you do that?” Sarah asked as they all were eating dinner. 

“Well munchkin, that was before you came along,” she giggles turning back to Charlie, “You were right, that’s exactly what you said he would say!”  They high five and everyone laughs at them. “Mike, Jill was telling me that you guys have only been dating for about a year, adopting a kid six months into the relationship is a pretty big step.”  

Mike rolls his eyes at Paige, “Stop, just stop it, okay?” she holds her hands up in defense, “What? I didn’t say anything wrong, did I?”  

Sarah looks up at Paige, confused, then looks back to Mike, “Daddy, I want mommy, when is she gonna be home?”  Mike reaches over, wrapping his arm around her waist making her get up to sit on his lap, “She’ll be home soon, she had a bunch of work to do today.”  Sarah lays her head on his chest, snuggling into him while he continues eating. 

 

“Mommy!” Sarah gets up out of Johnny’s lap on the floor and runs to the hallway where Jill was walking in the door, “Hi princess, how are you?” Jill picks Sarah up, “I’m fine, daddy said you and him and Charlie and Johnny and Paige would come to my school for Career Day tomorrow.”  

“I think that’s a great idea, and I’m sure daddy already got it squared away at the office, huh?” Sarah nods her head, “Yep, he said that you guys get the whole day off!”  

“Oh wow! That’s perfect! How about you and Johnny go play, I need to talk to daddy about something,” Sarah jumps down and runs back to Johnny as Mike walks over to Jill, kissing her on the cheek, which she backs away from.  “What’s wrong?” Jill pulls Mike into the kitchen. 

 

“Why are you getting so upset? Why don’t you trust me? I love you more than anything, Jill,” Mike pleads with her, trying to pull her in close to him.  “Mike, she clearly is still in love with you.” 

“I’m not in love with her! She sent someone to kill me a couple of years ago, why would I be in love with someone like that?”  Jill lets him hold her, she wraps her arms around him, crying on his shoulder. “I love you, Mike, I love you so much, I’m sorry.”  

“Shh, hey, hey, hey, I should’ve told you more about the situation,  _ I’m  _ sorry,” Mike rubs her back, kissing the top of her head, “You’re so good-you’re so good to me, Jill, you deserve so much better, thank you for choosing me.”  

 

“My mommy and daddy work for the FBI, they catch bad guys!” Sarah says, excitedly as Mike and Jill wave from behind her, “Thank you munchkin, alright, does anybody know what the FBI is?” Mike asks a couple of little hands go up.  

“Yes, what is the FBI?” Jill points at one of the little girls whose hand is in the air, “It’s who gets the bad guys who try to hurt the country.”  

“Good job, but that’s more of what the counterterrorism guys do, Mike and I are a little different.  I am an analyst, so I work with computers to find out what bad guys are up to, figure out their plans.  I also have worked with Mike a couple of times on cases, I help make sure that he gets out of a case safely.”  Mike smiles at her before stepping up, “And I am a special agent, I used to work undercover to catch bad guys, but now I just figure out who the bad guys are and my team and I take care of them.”  

A little girl raises her hand and Mike points at her to ask her question, “Can girls be special agents too?”  Mike kneels down in front of her, smiling, “Of course they can, girls can be anything that boys can be, as long as you work hard for what you want.  Promise me that you will, yeah?” she nods, smiling, “Good.” 

Mike and Jill talk about a couple more things about the FBI with the help of Charlie and Johnny, Paige had decided she was better off not coming and headed home that morning.  After their presentation, they sign Sarah out of school to take her to get ice cream and go home to chill out a bit and for Jill and Mike to get ready for their date night. 

 

“Sarah, you feeling okay, baby?” Charlie asks, sitting down next to her and Johnny on the floor, “No, I want daddy,” she whines crawling into Johnny’s lap.  “It’ll be alright princess, mommy and daddy will be home later,” he tries making her feel better as she cries into his chest, “I want my daddy!” Johnny rubs her back, not knowing what to do, he looks up at Charlie, “I’ll call Mike, walk her around a bit, try to calm her down.”  

Johnny stands up rocking Sarah slowly as she continues crying even harder.  “Shh, baby, I’ve got you, Charlie is calling daddy, okay?” 

“I want-I want my-my daddy!” Johnny shushes her, looking down at her, her face getting red, “Sweetheart, you’re gonna make yourself sick,” Charlie says, walking back over to them.  “Daddy is gonna be home as soon as he can, okay?” Sarah continues crying until Charlie notices her gag, “Johnny, take her to the bathroom.” 

He runs to the bathroom, sitting on the floor with her as she empties the contents of her stomach, “Here baby, here’s your elephant, daddy said this is your favorite cuddle toy.”  Sarah falls back on the floor in Johnny’s lap, still crying, taking her elephant from Charlie. 

 

“Hey, where’s Sarah, what happened?” Mike asks, rushing into the house, “She’s fine, she wasn’t feeling well, Johnny laid with her in bed and she was able to cry herself to sleep.  She threw up a couple of times, I don’t know if it’s because she’s sick or because she made herself sick.” Mike rushes past her to Sarah’s bedroom where Johnny was asleep with Sarah in his arms.  “Hey, John, wake up,” Johnny bolts up, waking up Sarah which makes her whimper until Mike takes her in his arms. 

“Hi baby, daddy’s got you, you’re okay,” he can feel her shivering so he grabs her blanket off the edge of her bed, “Here, you cold?”  Sarah shakes her head, “No, I’m hot,” she pushes the blanket off of herself. 

“Okay, let’s take your temperature, Johnny and Charlie can make you some soup and juice, does that sound good?” she nods her head and the three of them head back to where Jill and Charlie are.  

 

“Her fever is really high, Mike, I don’t like that,” Jill says, helping Charlie with carefully taking Sarah’s shirt off to cool her down without removing her from Mike.  “I know, I wanna take her to the d-o-c-t-o-r, but you know how she feels about that.” 

“I know, but she has to go, Mike,” Sarah starts whimpering again, hearing where this is going, “Daddy, no doctor,” Mike smiles at Jill then kisses the side of Sarah’s head, “Yes doctor, you’re too sick, baby, come on.”  Jill throws Sarah’s jacket over her and they head out to the car, leaving Charlie and Johnny at home. 

 

“I wanna keep her overnight until the antibiotics kick in, both of you can stay with her,” Mike nods, sitting down next to the hospital bed while Jill stands with the doctor, “What is it that she has?”  

“She definitely needs more fluids, she might be developing a case of pneumonia,” Mike pushes a strand of hair out of Sarah’s face, smiling at her as she sleeps peacefully.  “Okay, is there anything we can do?” 

The doctor shakes his head, smiling at her, “She’ll be just fine, she needs rest and medicine, that’s it, she may need a few days off of school to get better, two weeks tops.  But other than that, she’s just fine.” Jill thanks him and goes over to Mike, sitting on the edge of the bed, holding his hand. 

“You know, I was thinking earlier while we were at dinner,” Jill whispers, getting Mike’s full attention, “I love you, and you love me, and we’ve been doing really well with Sarah, right?”  Mike nods, confused, “Let’s have a baby.” 

He smiles up at her, taking his hand out of hers and wrapping it around her waist, “I’ve been thinking that for a while now, and I was just waiting to see if you felt the same.”  She smiles back at him, leaning down to kiss him, “I love you,” he kisses her back, smiling, “I love you too.”

 

“Mommy? Daddy?”  Mike and Jill look down at Sarah, Jill moves off next to the bed, sitting on the arm of Mike’s chair, “Hi, baby, how are you feeling?” Mike asks her, squeezing her hand, “I  _ don’t  _ feel  _ good,” _ she says, with attitude, Mike rolls his eyes, “Sarah, what’s bothering you?”  She shrugs her shoulders, pouting, “Do you feel like you’re gonna throw up?” 

“A little,” Jill smiles at her, “A little? How do you feel like you’re gonna throw up a little?”  She shrugs again, whining, “Daddy, I don’t feel good!” Mike stands up from the chair, sitting down on the edge of the bed, “Will it make you feel better if I lay down with you?”  She nods and Mike picks her up, moving her over, “I guess I can lie down here with you for a bit.” Sarah giggled, wrapping her arms around his neck, climbing on top of him to lay down. 


End file.
